Chief Architect (f/m/d) for AI-Native Systems in SAP Business AI

SAP SE; München; Hybrid; EUR 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

SAP SE seeks a senior AI/ML-focused software architect to shape SAP's AI technology strategy across the Northern Hemisphere. You will guide LLM adoption, multi-agent systems, and responsible AI practices while aligning architecture with the needs of platform, product, and engineering teams.

You will mentor senior architects, drive cross-domain changes at scale, and participate in high-level executive communications. This is a leadership role within SAP Business AI with broad impact.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in software development or architecture with focus on AI/ML.
• 5+ years in technical leadership and executive stakeholder engagement.
• 2+ years in agentic engineering and LLM-based systems.
• A degree in a technical field and fluency in English required.

Responsibilities

• Shape SAP's AI technology strategy and align with technology, platform, and application teams.
• Guide the responsible adoption of LLMs, RAG, and multi-agent systems across SAP products.
• Set standards for CI/CD, MLOps, and secure architecture practices.
• Mentor senior architects and drive cross-domain architectural changes at scale.
• Represent the discipline at the executive level within SAP Business AI.

Skills

AI/ML focus

Large-scale systems

Executive stakeholder engagement

Cloud engineering

Agentic engineering

LLM-based systems

Responsible AI

Technical leadership

English fluency

Education

Technical degree

Tools

CI/CD

MLOps

Secure architecture

Job description

What You’ll Bring You bring 10+ years in software development or architecture, with a strong track record in large-scale systems and a deep focus on AI and ML. You stay close to the frontier of AI and cloud technology beyond any single company and bring that outside-in perspective to shape internal architecture decisions. You think in systems, have 5+ years in technical leadership and executive stakeholder engagement, hands‑on cloud engineering experience, and 2+ years in agentic engineering and LLM‑based systems. Responsible AI is core to your practice. A degree in a technical field and fluency in English are required. Job Description What You’ll Bring You bring 10+ years in software development or architecture, with a strong track record in large-scale systems and a deep focus on AI and ML. You stay close to the frontier of AI and cloud technology beyond any single company and bring that outside-in perspective to shape internal architecture decisions. You think in systems, have 5+ years in technical leadership and executive stakeholder engagement, hands‑on cloud engineering experience, and 2+ years in agentic engineering and LLM‑based systems. Responsible AI is core to your practice. A degree in a technical field and fluency in English are required. What You’ll Build You'll shape SAP's AI technology strategy, aligning technology, platform, and application teams. Your scope covers SAP's NorthStar Architecture, architecture reviews, and executive communications. You'll guide the responsible adoption of LLMs, RAG, and multi-agent systems, and embed practices such as agentic orchestration, context engineering, evaluation and benchmark engineering, and AI output quality assurance into engineering teams. Setting standards for CI/CD, MLOps, and secure architecture practices is part of your mandate. Where You Belong You'll be part of SAP's central architecture team in SAP Business AI — a horizontal function influencing engineering across all product lines. You'll report directly to the CTO AI. This role has a multi‑year scope and requires cross‑domain expertise to drive change at scale. You'll mentor senior architects, build AI adoption capability, and represent the discipline at the executive level. With more than 75% of the world's transaction revenue touching an SAP system, the architecture decisions made in this role will shape how business processes are executed for hundreds of millions of users. If you want to define that architecture — this is your role. Additional Information About SAP With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improves people’s lives. As a leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business‑critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. We win with inclusion SAP’s culture of inclusion, focus on health and well‑being, and flexible working models help ensure that everyone – regardless of background – feels included and can run at their best. At SAP, we believe we are made stronger by the unique capabilities and qualities that each person brings to our company, and we invest in our employees to inspire confidence and help everyone realize their full potential. We ultimately believe in unleashing all talent and creating a better world. SAP is committed to the values of Equal Employment Opportunity and provides accessibility accommodations to applicants with physical and/or mental disabilities. If you are interested in applying for employment with SAP and are in need of accommodation or special assistance to navigate our website or to complete your application, please send an e‑mail with your request to Recruiting Operations Team: [e-mail]. For SAP employees: Only permanent roles are eligible for the SAP Employee Referral Program, according to the eligibility rules set in the SAP Referral Policy. Specific conditions may apply for roles in Vocational Training. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their age, race, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, et al), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, or disability, in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local legal requirements. AI Usage in the Recruitment Process For information on the responsible use of AI in our recruitment process, please refer to our Guidelines for Ethical Usage of AI in the Recruiting Process. Please note that any violation of these guidelines may result in disqualification from the hiring process.