Technical Program Manager, AI Delivery for Public Sector & Defence, UK

London, Remote. Posted 3 months ago

The role

You will lead end-to-end technical program delivery for UK public sector and defence customers. You will act as a bridge between AI capabilities and government needs, managing complex procurement, security, and deployment requirements.

What you will do

Own end-to-end technical program delivery for UK public sector and defence customers
Serve as the primary technical program point of contact for government customers
Translate complex government requirements into actionable engineering plans
Navigate government procurement processes, RFP responses, and contractual technical obligations
Provide communication across engineering, customer stakeholders, and government leadership
Present technical roadmaps and status updates to senior government officials
Create and manage project schedules accounting for government timelines and security reviews
Identify and manage dependencies across government departments and internal teams
Ensure on-time delivery of AI solutions meeting security, privacy, and accessibility standards
Coordinate technical work across multiple teams including model customisation and security hardening

Required 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
Proven track record managing complex, multi-stakeholder technical programs with stringent compliance requirements
Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field
Strong understanding of enterprise software deployment architectures (cloud, on-premises, hybrid, air-gapped)
Comfortable discussing API integrations, model inference, data pipelines, and ML operations
Deep understanding of how government organisations procure, evaluate, and deploy technology
Familiarity with UK government requirements: data sovereignty, privacy laws, accessibility standards, official languages obligations, security classifications
Understanding of defence and national security considerations in AI deployment
Eligible to obtain UK government security clearance

Nice to have

Advanced degree or technical certs
Working knowledge of or experience with modern AI: LLMs, agentic systems, MCP, RAG, fine-tuning, evals, and responsible AI
Experience with Algorithmic Impact Assessments or AI ethics frameworks
Active UK government security clearance (Secret or Top Secret)
Background in or strong familiarity with UK 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

Benefits

Weekly lunch stipend of £75
Full health and dental benefits
Separate budget for mental health
RRSP matching, 401K, Pension Scheme
100% Parental Leave top-up for up to 6 months
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
Budget for traveling to other offices if remote
Annual company offsite
Co-working benefit for those not near an office
$500 home office stipend

Before you apply

Must be eligible to obtain UK government security clearance
Obtaining Top Secret clearance can take 12-18 months
Candidates without active clearance will work on non-classified public sector accounts while the clearance process is underway

About the company

Cohere is a leading security-first enterprise AI company that builds foundation AI models and end-to-end products. It is a global technology company headquartered in Toronto.