Senior Director, Solutions Architecture, APAC

Job 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 headquartered in Toronto with key offices in London, New York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Paris, Berlin and Seoul. Join us! As the Senior Director of Solutions Architecture for Asia Pacific at Cohere, you will own Solutions Architecture across the region. Our customers here are banks, telcos, industrials and governments who cannot send their data to someone else’s cloud, and who are past experimenting and into production. You will lead the team that makes those deployments real, and you will be accountable for the technical win across the region. This is a build. Today a Solutions Architecture team covers Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia. You will own that team, grow it, and build the in-region depth this market needs. You will be expected to open doors on your own credibility and network from your first weeks, set direction for the function, sit on the Solution Architecture leadership team alongside the regional leaders for the Americas and EMEA, and contribute to company-wide decisions with your peers across Sales, Product and Engineering. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL: - Build and Lead the Team: Hire, coach and develop the Asia Pacific Solutions Architecture organization, and establish in-region depth rather than relying on support flown in from other regions. - Open Doors Across the Region: Bring industry knowledge, technical credibility and an existing network to get Cohere into strategic accounts quickly. This is the central expectation of the role and you should expect to be measured on it. - Own the Technical Win: Be personally accountable for the technical outcome of the region’s most strategic pursuits, and be in the room for the ones that decide the year. - Set Direction for the Function: Define the vision, strategy, coverage model and operating rhythm for Asia Pacific Solutions Architecture across three markets that buy differently and regulate differently. - Architect Sovereign and Regulated Deployments: Lead customers into secure, scalable, production-ready agentic AI deployments across cloud, hybrid, VPC, on-premises and air-gapped environments, which is where much of this region’s demand sits. - Build Repeatable Solution Practices: Establish scalable solution-selling methodologies, industry playbooks, executive narratives, business cases and technical delivery frameworks that improve consistency and win rates. - Partner with Regional Sales Leadership: Own territory, coverage and pipeline jointly with the Asia Pacific sales leader, and be accountable for the number together. - Shape Product Direction: Partner closely with Product and Engineering to translate Asia Pacific customer needs into platform improvements and roadmap priorities. You will be one of a handful of people who can tell our product organization what this region actually requires. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES: - Build and develop the Asia Pacific Solutions Architecture team through hiring, coaching, performance management and career development. - Partner with regional Sales leadership to pursue and close strategic enterprise opportunities across financial services, telecommunications, industrials, technology and the public sector. - Establish and own the regional coverage model across Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia, and make the case for where the team grows next. - Lead executive workshops, discovery sessions, solution presentations and technical deep dives with C-suite and senior customer stakeholders. - Develop business cases, solution architectures, implementation roadmaps and technical proposals that align customer objectives with Cohere’s platform. - Guide customers through the deployment of enterprise AI solutions, ensuring scalability, security, governance, data residency and operational readiness. - Create repeatable solution assets, industry playbooks and best practices that enable the team to consistently deliver high-quality customer engagements. - Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Sales and Customer Success to ensure alignment between customer needs and platform evolution, and contribute to decisions that reach beyond your own function. - Serve as the voice of the region by capturing customer feedback and competitive insights that influence product strategy. - Own and report on the region’s operational and commercial metrics, including technical win rates, pipeline health, coverage and team performance. WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR: - Leadership Experience: 15+ years in Solutions Architecture, Solutions Engineering, Technical Consulting or Enterprise Architecture, including 7+ years leading customer-facing technical teams, and a record of developing people into senior and leadership roles. - Regional Depth and Network: You have built or run a technical organization across more than one Asia Pacific market, you understand how enterprise technology is actually bought in each of them, and you have a network of senior technical and executive relationships you are willing to be measured on. - People Leadership: A proven record of hiring, coaching and developing high-performing Solutions Architecture or Solutions Engineering teams, including building a team in-region from a small base. - Hands-On Technical Credibility: You are technical enough to be believed by a strong engineering bench. You have put real AI systems into production, you can pressure-test your team’s architecture, and you can be the most useful person in a design conversation when it matters. We care far more about what you have deployed, and what broke, than about which models you can name. - Commercial Acumen: A demonstrated ability to partner with enterprise Sales leadership, influence strategic deals, and articulate business value to executive stakeholders. You have carried a number and can point to deals you personally moved. - Executive Presence: You command a room. You are credible in front of a CEO and their business leaders as well as a Chief Information Officer, a Chief AI Officer or a Chief Information Security Officer, and you can move between the business case and the architecture without losing either audience. - Technical Expertise: A strong understanding of modern AI architectures, including large language models, agentic systems, retrieval, enterprise integrations, cloud platforms, hybrid and on-premises deployments, security and governance. - Enterprise Experience: Experience designing and delivering enterprise technology solutions in complex, regulated or large-scale environments. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS: - Experience building an AI, machine learning or data science function inside a large regulated enterprise, and taking it into production. - Depth in Asia Pacific financial services, telecommunications or the public sector. - Experience deploying into environments where the customer controls the infrastructure, including on-premises, sovereign and air-gapped deployments. - Background in enterprise AI, cloud, or data platform companies, or applied AI consulting organizations. - Experience building repeatable solution-selling methodologies and helping generalist technical teams operate at a consistently high level. - Working proficiency in a regional language in addition to English. - Experience operating in high-growth environments where speed, ownership and cross-functional collaboration are critical. FULL-TIME EMPLOYEES AT COHERE ENJOY THESE PERKS: - 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. - 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, but we also have offices in Toronto, London, New York City, San Francisco, Montreal, Paris, Berlin and Seoul with more opening 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. 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. Beware of Scams: Cohere will never ask for payment or third-party services (e.g., CV writing) as part of our hiring process. All legitimate roles are listed on the Cohere careers page and LinkedIn only, with all communications from Cohere employees coming from an @cohere.com or @cw.cohere email alias. If jobs are viewed on other sites then please verify these through our official careers https://cohere.com/careers page.