Forward Deployed Engineer, Sovereign AI

Forward Deployed Engineer, Sovereign AI

Team: Sovereign AI

Location: Ottawa

Employment type: FullTime

Workplace type: Hybrid

Remote: yes

Published: 2026-03-12T10:00:36.956+00:00

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

If some of the above doesn’t line up perfectly with your experience, we still encourage you to apply!

We value and celebrate diversity and 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.

Full-Time Employees at Cohere Enjoy These Perks:

• An open and inclusive culture and work environment

• Work closely with a team on the cutting edge of AI research

• 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.

• Remote-flexible, offices in Toronto, New York, San Francisco, London and Paris, as well as a co-working stipend

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

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

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.

• Everyone receives a $500 home office stipend to set up your workspace properly.