Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery for Public Sector & Defense, Germany

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 Germany. 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: Germany

Eligibility: This individual must be a German citizen living in Germany and fluent in German, enabling immediate engagement with critical defense and national security customers.

Security Clearance: German security clearance is not required, but is a strong nice-to-have.

What Makes This Role Unique

This isn't typical program management - it's a highly specialised role at the intersection of frontier AI, national security, and public sector digital transformation. You'll work on some of Canada's most sensitive and impactful AI deployments, helping government organisations harness cutting-edge technology while maintaining the highest standards of security, ethics, and accountability.

If you're passionate about responsible AI adoption, understand the unique constraints and opportunities within government, and want to have an outsized impact on how Canada leverages AI to serve its citizens, this role is for you.

Required Experience

• 6+ years of experience as a customer-facing Technical or Engineering Program Manager in AI/ML consulting, technology transformation, or enterprise software delivery.

• Excellent executive communication and stakeholder management.

• Experience working with government, defence, or heavily regulated customers.

• Proven track record managing complex, multi-stakeholder technical programs with stringent compliance requirements.

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; advanced degree or technical certs a plus.

Technical Background

• Strong understanding of enterprise software deployment architectures (cloud, on-premises, hybrid, air-gapped)

• Working knowledge of or experience with modern AI: LLMs, agentic systems, MCP, RAG, fine-tuning, evals, and responsible AI would be a strong differentiator

• Comfortable discussing API integrations, model inference, data pipelines, and ML operations with technical stakeholders.

Nice to Have

• Active German security clearance

• Bilingual (English/German) proficiency

• Background in or strong familiarity with European defence, intelligence, or critical infrastructure sectors

• Experience with GC Cloud services (Azure, AWS GovCloud) or Protected B/C environments

• Project management certification (PMP, PgMP) or government-specific methodologies.

Security Clearance Requirements

This role strongly prefers eligibility for German government security clearance.

We are looking for candidates eligible for German government clearance, meaning that they require German citizenship. In addition, this individual is required to be based in Germany and be fluent in German as this will enable immediate engagement with critical defence and national security customers.

Full-Time Employees at Cohere enjoy these Perks

• A weekly lunch stipend of $75/£75 or equivalent in your local currency for lunch.

• Full health and dental benefits, including a separate budget for mental health.

• RRSP matching, 401K, Pension Scheme.

• 100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months, for either parent.

Annual enrichment benefits

Arts & culture, fitness/wellness, quality time, and a workspace improvement credit.

Education & learning stipend for conferences, courses, and coaching.

• 6 weeks of paid vacation (30 working days!)

• Budget for traveling to other offices if you are remote, plus an annual company offsite.