Forward Deployed Engineer, Sovereign AI
Application analysis
Forward Deployed Engineer, Sovereign AI at Cohere is a forward deployed ai company role for engineers who want customer-facing technical work with real deployment ownership.
Reading this role
This Forward Deployed Engineer role centers on embedded customer delivery — discovery, prototyping, integration, and production rollout. Key signals from the listing: Active security clearance mentioned, Clearance eligibility required, Python, Government / DoD context.
About Cohere
This company is building AI products where forward deployed engineers translate capabilities into customer outcomes quickly. The role is anchored in Ottawa, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
Stand out for Forward Deployed Engineer, Sovereign AI
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Forward Deployed Engineer, Sovereign AI to a specific customer or deployment you owned — Cohere hires for shipped outcomes, not tool lists.
- Prepare a 5-minute “week one on site” plan: who you would meet, what you would inspect in their stack, and what artifact you would deliver by day five.
- Show you can go from discovery notes → working integration → production checklist without needing a large internal team.
- State clearance status clearly up front (active, expired, or eligible) and mention any prior NIPR/SIPR, IL5, or government cloud accreditation work — recruiters filter on this early.
- This role is tied to Ottawa — mention willingness to work on-site with customers and any existing ties to that market (clients, partners, or domain knowledge).
Stand out at Cohere
- Demonstrate rapid prototyping with a concrete example — Cohere will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Demonstrate customer discovery with a concrete example — Cohere will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Expect questions about real deployments, safety tradeoffs, and how you partner with customers on week one.
- Read recent engineering blog posts, product launches, and customer stories on cohere.com — reference one explicitly in your outreach to show genuine interest.
Tailored from this listing’s title, company, and description. Always verify requirements on the company careers page before applying.
Role description
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 co-headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco, with key offices in London, New York City, Montreal, Seoul, Germany and Paris. Join us!
About North:
North https://cohere.com/north is Cohere's cutting-edge AI workspace platform, designed to revolutionize the way enterprises utilize AI. It offers a secure and customizable environment, allowing companies to deploy AI while maintaining control over sensitive data. North integrates seamlessly with existing workflows, providing a trusted platform that connects AI agents with workplace tools and applications.
Why This Role?
Cohere’s team partners with Canadian public sector organisations to unlock transformative value through secure, ethical deployment of Generative AI (GenAI) solutions. We work collaboratively to address complex societal challenges while maintaining the highest standards of data security and compliance. You will work directly with public sector customers to quickly understand their greatest problems and design and implement solutions using Cohere's stack. This role offers a unique opportunity to shape how enterprises harness the power of AI in real-world applications. As a bridge between our core North product and our clients’ engineering teams, you’ll be at the forefront of solving complex problems and securely integrating AI into critical sectors. We are seeking engineers with diverse skill sets, including backend, infrastructure, agent development, and deployments, who deeply care about customers and want to work at the cutting edge of Agentic AI. Location: Ottawa or Toronto required (proximity to government customers), 20-40% travel anticipated. Security Clearance: Active Top Secret clearance strongly preferred; candidates eligible and willing to obtain clearance will also be considered. More information about Canadian Security Clearance can be found here https://www.canada.ca/en/public-services-procurement/services/industrial-security/security-requirements-contracting/personnel-security-screening/processes/security-clearance-request.html. In this role, you will:
- Build and ship features for North, our AI workspace platform
- Develop autonomous agents that talk to sensitive enterprise data
- Experiment at a high velocity and with a high level of quality to engage our customers and ultimately deliver solutions that exceed their expectations
- Work across the entire product lifecycle from conceptualization through production
- Lead end-to-end deployment of North in private cloud and on-premises environments, including planning, configuration, testing, and rollout
You may be a good fit if:
- You have experience with and enjoy working directly with customers
- You have shipped (lots of) Python in production
- You have built and deployed highly performant client-side or server-side RAG/agentic applications
- You have strong coding abilities and are comfortable working across the stack. You’re able to read and understand, and even fix issues outside of the main code base
- You excel in fast-paced environments and can execute while priorities and objectives are a moving target
How And Where We Work:
- Cohere is remote-friendly. We have offices in Toronto, San Francisco, New York City, London, Paris, Montreal, and more coming soon.
- For those in the office: a daily lunch program, plenty of snacks, and regular community and social events.
- For those not near an office: a co-working benefit so you can work alongside others in your city.
If any of the above doesn’t line up exactly with your experience, we still encourage you to apply. We strive to create an inclusive work environment for all; we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to providing equal opportunities. Should you require any accommodations during the recruitment process, please submit an Accommodations Request Form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12a6IrLdF3kI2nonKSr4tiFuz18rLQbaeYV-JM9L4o9Q/edit, and we will work together to meet your needs. We may use AI-enabled tools to screen and assess applicants against the criteria for this position. This helps our recruiters identify potentially qualified candidates, but it doesn't limit the applications our recruiters may review or consider.