Senior GRC Specialist

About Us

Cohere is the leading security-first enterprise AI company. We build cutting-edge foundation AI models and end-to-end products designed to solve real-world business problems. We’re training and deploying frontier models for enterprises building AI systems. We believe our work is instrumental to the widespread adoption of AI and are looking for folks who want to be part of that. We obsess over what we build, with each team member contributing to increasing the capabilities of our models and the value they drive for customers.

Cohere is a global technology company co-headquartered in Toronto and San Francisco, with key offices in London, New York City, Montreal, Seoul, Germany, and Paris. Our team includes researchers, engineers, designers, and more, all passionate about their craft.

About the Role

The Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) team at Cohere operates as a centralized function within the Security organization, leading efforts across governance, risk management, and compliance. This team reinforces customer trust, ensures adherence to regulatory requirements, and advances robust internal governance and control practices.

This role offers the opportunity to help build and shape Cohere’s compliance and governance foundation. As expectations around security, privacy, public sector readiness, and responsible AI evolve, you will play a key role in translating complex requirements into scalable programs, practical controls, and durable governance processes. It is a high-impact role for someone eager to work at the intersection of security, compliance, technology, and AI governance, enabling responsible growth in a fast-moving environment.

This is not a purely policy-focused GRC role. We’re looking for someone who can pair compliance expertise with practical technical problem-solving, including automation, lightweight tool building, and process improvement.

Responsibilities

• Build, implement, and scale compliance programs, controls, and processes across frameworks and regulatory requirements including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, ISO 42001, Product Compliance, and FedRAMP/DoD (+others).
• Support and mature compliance efforts related to AI governance including work aligned to ISO 42001 and the EU AI Act.
• Drive compliance readiness for FedRAMP, DoD, and related public sector requirements, while supporting broader enterprise and customer-facing compliance obligations.
• Partner with Security, Engineering, Modeling, Product, Legal, and other cross-functional teams to translate requirements into practical, scalable controls.
• Improve compliance operations through automation, tooling, and scalable workflows.
• Help build scripts or lightweight tools for evidence collection, reporting, control tracking, and audit readiness.
• Manage cross-functional projects, timelines, remediation efforts, and audit preparation.
• Support audits, assessments, and customer or regulatory compliance requests.

Requirements

You’ll ideally have 7+ years of progressive experience in the following:

• Building and scaling compliance programs across multiple frameworks and regulatory requirements, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, with extensive experience in FedRAMP, DoD, and public sector or highly regulated environments.
• AI governance and frameworks such as ISO 42001.
• Strong project management and cross-functional execution skills.
• Technical fluency and comfort working with Engineering and Security teams.
• Automation, workflow tooling, or process design; some hands-on experience with Python or similar scripting for lightweight automation is a plus.
• Strong written communication, organization, and attention to detail.

Nice to Have

• Experience designing and implementing mature risk management frameworks, including FAIR, quantitative risk methodologies, and other structured enterprise risk models.
• Consulting experience in regulated environments, including multi-jurisdictional compliance programs and regulatory requirements across the U.S. and international markets.
• Experience with additional frameworks such as NIST CSF, NIST RMF, NIST AI RMF, CMMC, or similar standards.
• Experience working in cloud-native, SaaS, or highly technical product environments.
• Experience preparing reports, metrics, and presentations for senior leadership, including communicating compliance posture, program progress, and risk insights to executive stakeholders.

Pay

Cohere is committed to fair and transparent pay practices. The salary range listed for this role reflects the expected base compensation. Actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, level, job-related knowledge, skills, education, and experience.

• For candidates in the US: $140,000 - $220,000 USD
• For candidates in Canada: $200,000 - $245,000 CAD

Benefits

Full-Time Employees at Cohere enjoy these perks:

• A weekly lunch stipend of $75/£75 or equivalent in your local currency.
• 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.
• 6 weeks of paid vacation (30 working days).
• Budget for traveling to other offices if you are remote, plus an annual company offsite.
• A $500 home office stipend to set up your workspace properly.

Schedule

Cohere is remote-friendly with offices in Toronto, San Francisco, New York City, London, Paris, Montreal, and more. Options include:

• 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 to work alongside others in your city.