Forward Deployed Engineer, Infrastructure Specialist (France)
Infrastructure Specialist · Mid · Full Time
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Role
What you'll do.
As a Forward Deployed Engineer at Cohere's Paris office, you'll lead end-to-end deployment and integration of North, our cutting-edge AI workspace platform, for enterprise clients in critical sectors including finance, healthcare, and telecommunications. This role bridges Cohere's core product with enterprise engineering teams, requiring deep expertise in Kubernetes orchestration, cloud infrastructure, and DevOps practices while working directly with industry leaders like RBC, Dell, and LG CNS to solve complex, real-world AI infrastructure challenges.
Responsibilities
- Lead End-to-End Deployment Operations: Own the complete deployment lifecycle of North platform in private cloud and on-premises environments, including infrastructure planning, configuration, comprehensive testing, and full production rollout with minimal downtime.
- Enterprise Infrastructure Assessment: Collaborate closely with enterprise IT teams to evaluate existing infrastructure, identify security requirements, assess data management practices, and recommend tailored deployment architectures that align with organizational standards.
- High-Velocity Product Integration: Execute rapid experimentation cycles while maintaining exceptional code and deployment quality to engage customers, validate solutions, and deliver implementations that consistently exceed client expectations in production environments.
- Customized Deployment Strategy Design: Architect deployment strategies specifically tailored to individual client requirements, ensuring full compliance with data privacy regulations (GDPR, etc.) and enterprise-grade security standards throughout the implementation.
- Production Troubleshooting and Support: Diagnose and resolve deployment-related technical issues rapidly, providing timely solutions to enterprise clients to minimize system downtime and ensure consistent platform availability.
- Customer On-Site Engagement: Travel to customer locations 20-40% of the time to provide hands-on support, conduct training, validate deployments, and build long-term technical relationships with enterprise partners across Europe.
Qualifications
What we look for.
Technical
Production Kubernetes Administration
Proven hands-on experience administering large-scale production Kubernetes clusters with demonstrated expertise in Helm package management, cluster architecture, resource optimization, and multi-tenant isolation.
Cloud Infrastructure Platforms
Strong expertise across major cloud providers (Azure, AWS, or GCP) including virtual machine deployment, networking configuration, storage solutions, identity and access management, and cost optimization.
Enterprise DevOps Practices
Solid understanding of DevOps methodologies, CI/CD pipeline design and implementation, infrastructure-as-code principles, Git version control, and containerization technologies in production environments.
Private and Hybrid Cloud Deployment
Demonstrated experience deploying and managing enterprise software across private cloud infrastructures and hybrid cloud environments with understanding of on-premises deployment constraints and security considerations.
Networking and Virtualization
Competency in networking protocols, firewall configuration, load balancing, VPN solutions, and virtualization technologies required for secure enterprise infrastructure deployment.
Education
Fluent French Language Proficiency
Full professional fluency in French language required for daily communications with French enterprise clients, documentation review, and on-site technical engagement in the Paris region.
Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent professional experience demonstrating strong fundamentals in infrastructure and systems architecture.
Experience
Direct Customer Engagement
Proven track record working directly with enterprise customers in technical roles, understanding their constraints, communicating complex technical concepts clearly, and building trust through reliable delivery.
Production Kubernetes Operations
Hands-on operational experience managing Kubernetes environments at scale in production settings, troubleshooting cluster issues, and optimizing application performance in containerized architectures.
Enterprise Software Deployment
Previous experience deploying complex enterprise software solutions in production environments with attention to security, compliance, performance, and stakeholder communication.
Skills
Required
Kubernetes Orchestration
Expert-level proficiency in Kubernetes cluster management, Helm charts, StatefulSets, network policies, RBAC, persistent volume management, and production troubleshooting.
Cloud Platform Expertise
Deep working knowledge of Azure, AWS, or GCP including IaaS offerings, networking services, managed Kubernetes solutions (AKS, EKS, GKE), and cloud security best practices.
Infrastructure-as-Code
Proficiency with IaC tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation for declarative infrastructure provisioning and configuration management at scale.
CI/CD Pipeline Development
Hands-on experience designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines using tools like GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar, enabling automated testing, building, and deployment workflows.
Systems Troubleshooting
Strong diagnostic skills for identifying and resolving infrastructure issues including networking problems, application performance degradation, resource contention, and deployment failures.
Customer Communication
Ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, gather requirements effectively, and translate business needs into infrastructure solutions.
Preferred
GPU Infrastructure Orchestration
Nice to haveExperience with GPU node scheduling, workload optimization, NVIDIA device plugins, distributed inference systems, and performance tuning for machine learning workloads on Kubernetes.
AI Infrastructure Stack
Nice to haveUnderstanding of the intersection between GPU infrastructure, inference systems, Kubernetes, distributed systems architecture, and performance optimization for AI applications.
Enterprise Security Compliance
Nice to haveFamiliarity with GDPR, SOC 2, data residency requirements, encryption standards, and security hardening practices relevant to enterprise AI platform deployments.
Observability and Monitoring
Nice to haveExperience implementing comprehensive monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, or Datadog for production system visibility.
Multi-Cloud Architecture
Nice to haveExperience managing applications and infrastructure across multiple cloud providers or hybrid cloud scenarios with understanding of federation, data locality, and cross-cloud networking.
Tech stack
Languages
Frameworks
Databases
Tools
Other
Compensation
Pay and benefits.
Base·EUR 55,000 – 75,000
Benefits
Weekly Lunch Stipend
EUR 75 or equivalent local currency provided weekly to support meals during working days.
Comprehensive Health and Dental Coverage
Full health insurance, dental benefits, and a separate dedicated budget for mental health support and wellness resources.
Retirement Matching Programs
Employer matching contributions to RRSP, 401K, or Pension Scheme depending on location and employment type.
Parental Leave Top-Up
100% salary continuation for up to 6 months of parental leave for either parent, supporting work-life balance and family planning.
Annual Enrichment Benefits
Budget allocation for arts and culture activities, fitness and wellness programs, quality time investments, and workspace improvement credits.
Professional Development Stipend
Annual education and learning budget supporting conference attendance, professional courses, technical certifications, and executive coaching.
Generous Paid Vacation
Six weeks of paid vacation annually (30 working days), providing extended time for personal rest, travel, and family time.
Office and Remote Work Benefits
Access to Cohere offices in Paris, London, Toronto, and other global locations with co-working benefits for remote employees, plus annual company offsite events.
Home Office Setup Stipend
USD 500 one-time allowance to properly equip and optimize your home workspace with technology and ergonomic furniture.
Inter-Office Travel Budget
Budget and support for traveling to other Cohere offices to collaborate with teams globally and participate in company-wide events.
Process
Interview steps.
- 01
Initial Screening Call
Conversation with Cohere recruiter to discuss your background, experience with Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure, customer engagement experience, and alignment with the role's requirements and travel expectations.
- 02
Technical Assessment Interview
Deep-dive technical discussion covering your experience with production Kubernetes clusters, cloud platform expertise (Azure/AWS/GCP), deployment strategies, troubleshooting scenarios, and hands-on infrastructure decisions you've made.
- 03
Customer Deployment Scenario
Practical technical scenario simulating a real enterprise deployment situation, evaluating your problem-solving approach, customer communication skills, and ability to design deployment strategies under constraints.
- 04
Infrastructure Architecture Discussion
Conversation focused on your experience designing scalable infrastructure, handling security and compliance requirements, optimizing for performance, and managing infrastructure-as-code practices.
- 05
Customer Success Team Interview
Discussion with members of the customer success and engineering teams at Cohere to evaluate cultural fit, collaboration approach, customer empathy, and alignment with product vision.
- 06
Final Offer Stage
Offer discussion covering compensation, benefits, relocation support if applicable, start date negotiation, and role expectations clarification.
Full posting
Original listing.
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!
About North:
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?
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 such as finance, healthcare, and telecommunications. Our esteemed clients include industry leaders like RBC, Dell, and LG CNS.
We are seeking engineers who deeply care about customers and want to work at the cutting edge of Agentic AI.
Location: France
In this role, you will:
Lead end-to-end deployment of North in private cloud and on-premises environments, including planning, configuration, testing, and rollout.
Partner with enterprise IT teams to assess infrastructure, security requirements, and data management practices.
Experiment at a high velocity and with a high level of quality to engage our customers and ultimately deliver solutions that exceed their expectations
Design and implement deployment strategies tailored to client needs, ensuring compliance with data privacy and security standards.
Troubleshoot and resolve deployment-related technical issues, providing timely solutions to minimize downtime.
Travel up to 20–40% to work on-site with customers and partners
You may be a good fit if:
You have experience with and enjoy working directly with customers
You have experience deploying enterprise software in private/hybrid cloud environments
You have proven experience administering large-scale production Kubernetes clusters and expertise with Helm
Familiarity with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, and tools like Git for version control
You have strong expertise in cloud infrastructure (Azure, AWS, GCP), networking, and virtualization
You excel in fast-paced environments and can execute while priorities and objectives are a moving target
You are fluent in French
It's a bonus if you have…
Familiarity with GPU node orchestration & scheduling
You understand the intersection of GPU infrastructure, inference systems, Kubernetes, distributed systems, and performance optimization.
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, 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 page.
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