Lead, Global External Affairs

Cohere Inc.

Job Overview

Location

Washington, DC

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Shaping the future of enterprise AI requires engaging beyond direct legislative advocacy. Leading technology and AI companies understand that long-term policy success relies on building a robust ecosystem of third-party validators, thought leaders, and strategic alliances.
• As the Lead for Global External Affairs, you will build and direct this critical function within our Government Affairs and Public Policy (GAPP) team. You will be responsible for defining how Cohere engages with the broader policy ecosystem, including think tanks, academic institutions, civil society organizations, and industry coalitions.
• In this role, you will define the strategy for global External Affairs, cultivate strategic partnerships, drive third-party validation, manage coalitions & associations, align internal stakeholders, and convene key voices.
• You will work seamlessly across the GAPP, Corporate Communications, Legal, and Go-To-Market teams to ensure our external partnerships and investments are driving measurable impact for the business.
• You will also have the opportunity to scale the team around public affairs and policy narratives.
• Your work will ensure that Cohere's narrative around responsible, secure, and highly effective enterprise AI is validated, amplified, and understood by the most influential voices shaping global technology policy.
• You will be responsible for building and executing a comprehensive global External Affairs strategy that aligns with and amplifies Cohere’s broader public policy and commercial objectives.
• You will identify, build, and manage deep relationships with leading technology policy think tanks, academic researchers, civil society organizations, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
• You will partner with external experts and institutions to generate thought leadership, research, and independent validation of Cohere’s approach to enterprise AI, data privacy, and model safety.
• You will serve as Cohere's primary representative on key industry coalitions, trade associations, and multi-stakeholder forums, ensuring our unique enterprise perspective shapes broader industry consensus.
• You will work with internal stakeholders to ensure our external partnerships and investments are driving measurable impact for the business.
• You will organize and host high-level roundtables, policy briefings, and summits that position Cohere as a central convener in the global AI policy debate.

🎯 Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in external affairs, public policy, or strategic partnerships, ideally within a major technology company, leading trade association, or prominent policy institution.
• An extensive, active network of relationships across major think tanks, academic centers, and civil society organizations globally.
• A sophisticated understanding of the current global debates surrounding artificial intelligence, including data governance, safety, open-source models, and enterprise adoption.
• Proven experience managing budgets for sponsorships, memberships, and grants, ensuring ROI and alignment with corporate policy goals.
• The ability to persuasively articulate complex technical and policy narratives to highly influential external audiences.

🏖️ Benefits

• 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, including 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.

Skills & Technologies

Senior

Remote

$220k-330k

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Cohere Inc.

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About Cohere Inc.

Cohere provides large language models and retrieval-augmented generation APIs for enterprise developers to embed conversational AI, search, summarization, and content generation into applications. Founded in 2021 by former Google Brain researchers, the company offers cloud and on-premise deployment, fine-tuning tools, and multilingual support to help organizations automate workflows, improve customer support, and analyze unstructured data while maintaining data privacy and security controls.

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