Senior Technical Program Manager Public Sector & Defence

Cohere; Ottawa; Hybrid; CAD 160,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch stipend

Health and dental benefits

RRSP matching / 401K

Parental leave

Education stipend

Vacation (6 weeks)

Travel to other offices

Job summary

Cohere is seeking an experienced Program Manager to lead customer-facing technical programs for Canadian public sector and defence accounts. You will bridge AI capabilities with government needs, navigating security, privacy, and procurement requirements across multiple Cohere teams.

Preferred candidates will have Top Secret eligibility, bilingual capabilities, and a strong track record in high-stakes government engagements. Location: Canada (Ottawa preferred).

Qualifications

• 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 (public sector, defence contractors).
• 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.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end technical program delivery for Canadian public sector and defence customers, from initial deployment through production scaling.
• Serve as the primary technical program point of contact for government customers, building trusted relationships with CIOs, IT directors, and technical teams.
• Translate government requirements (security, compliance, accessibility, bilingualism, data sovereignty) into actionable engineering plans.
• Navigate government procurement processes, RFP responses, and contractual technical obligations.
• Provide clear, timely, and objective communication across Cohere's engineering organization, customer stakeholders, and government leadership.
• Translate between AI/ML concepts and government-appropriate language for decision-makers.
• Present technical roadmaps and status updates to senior government officials.
• Represent Cohere's technical capabilities in sensitive government and defence contexts.

Skills

Technical program management

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Government/defence experience

Bachelors degree

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field

Advanced degree or technical certs (nice to have)

Tools

GC Cloud services (Azure, AWS GovCloud)

Job description

Cohere is seeking an experienced Program Manager to lead customer-facing technical programs for Canadian public sector and defence accounts. You will bridge AI capabilities with government needs, navigating security, privacy, and procurement requirements across multiple Cohere teams.

Preferred candidates will have Top Secret eligibility, bilingual capabilities, and a strong track record in high-stakes government engagements. Location: Canada (Ottawa preferred).