Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery Public Sector & Defense, France

Position: Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery for Public Sector & Defense, France
Who are we?

Cohere is the leading security-first enterprise AI company. We build cutting-edge foundation AI models and end-to-end products that are designed to solve real-world business problems.

We’re training and deploying frontier models for enterprises who are building AI systems. We believe that our work is instrumental to the widespread adoption of AI and we are looking for folks that want to be part of that.

We obsess over what we build. Each one of us is responsible for contributing to increasing the capabilities of our models and the value they drive for our customers. Cohere is a team of researchers, engineers, designers, and more, who are all passionate about their craft.

We are a global technology company headquartered in Toronto with key offices in London, New York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Paris, Berlin and Seoul. Join us!

Why This Role?

We're seeking an experienced Program Manager to join Cohere's customer-facing Program Management team, with a focus on public sector and defence accounts in Europe, particularly in France. This is a highly specialised role requiring an individual who understands technical program delivery, the technical complexity of frontier AI models and the unique requirements of government and defence organisations.

You will be the critical bridge between our cutting-edge AI capabilities and the specific needs of Ministries, Agencies, and defence organisations across Europe. You'll navigate complex procurement processes, stringent security requirements, data sovereignty concerns, and regulatory compliance while ensuring our customers successfully deploy and scale our AI solutions.

In this role, you'll collaborate with our Strategic Customer team, Applied ML (AML) Engineering, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE), Platform, Product, and Go-to-Market teams, serving as the technical program lead and trusted advisor for our most sensitive and high-impact government and defence engagements.

Location:

France

Eligibility :
Critically, this individual is required to be a French citizen living in France with fluency in French as this will enable immediate engagement with critical defence and national security customers.

Security Clearance:  Active French Secret clearance is preferred; candidates eligible and willing to obtain clearance will also be considered.

What You'll Do

Customer Program Leadership:

Own end-to-end technical program delivery for French and broader European public sector and defence customers, from initial deployment through production scaling

Serve as the primary technical program point of contact for customers, building trusted relationships with departmental CIOs, IT directors, and technical teams

Translate complex public sector and defence requirements (security, compliance, accessibility, bilingualism, data sovereignty) into actionable engineering plans

Navigate complex procurement processes, RFP responses, and contractual technical obligations.

Strategic Communication:

Provide clear, timely, and objective communication across Cohere’s engineering organisation, customer stakeholders, pubic sector and defence leadership

Translate between AI/ML technical concepts and government-appropriate language for decision-makers who may not have deep technical backgrounds

Present technical roadmaps and status updates to senior stakeholders including departmental executives

Represent Cohere’s technical capabilities in sensitive government and defence contexts.

Complex Program Management:

Create and manage project schedules that account for public sector and defence timelines, security review processes, and approval cycles

Identify and manage dependencies across government departments, security authorities, cloud service providers, and internal Cohere teams

Navigate risks unique to government and defence deployments: privacy compliance, security, political and regulatory, technology and infrastructure.

Drive alignment between product development priorities and specific customer requirements.

Technical Delivery & Execution:

Ensure on-time delivery of AI solutions that meet security, privacy, accessibility, and performance standards

Coordinate technical work across multiple teams: model customisation, security hardening, integration with government systems, bilingual support

Establish governance checkpoints appropriate for high-stakes government and defence deployments

Problem-solve complex technical challenges in air-gapped, on-premises, or highly regulated environments.

You May Be a Good Fit If:

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