Data Science Leader, Domain Models

SAP SE; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 274,000 - 609,000; Full time

Job summary

SAP SE is seeking a senior Data and Applied Science leader to architect enterprise AI platforms, govern ML lifecycles, and scale semantic knowledge graphs across SAP domains. You will guide cross-functional teams, drive strategic AI investments, and partner with executives to realize business value.

Join a global cloud-first team focused on reliable AI grounded in enterprise data, with strong emphasis on governance, reproducibility, and scalable knowledge frameworks.

Qualifications

• 10+ years proven experience leading data science, ML, and AI teams with a track record across multiple projects.
• Ability to define technical strategy and align AI investments with business objectives and roadmaps.
• Experience building cultures of technical excellence and rigorous governance.
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication to translate tech into business value.
• 5+ years of people management leading AI teams, with hiring and coaching success.
• Experience delivering large-scale AI programs with cross-team collaboration.
• Strong domain knowledge in ontology, semantic tech, metadata, and knowledge graphs.

Responsibilities

• Design AI/ML architecture, platform strategy, and governance for enterprise-scale deployments.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and establish ML Ops / LLM Ops practices.
• Collaborate with domain experts to translate enterprise knowledge into reusable semantic frameworks.
• Lead globally distributed teams and manage budgets, vendors, and partnerships.
• Drive adoption strategies and KPI-based measurement of business impact.

Skills

Leadership & Strategy

Stakeholder management

Executive communication

Hiring AI talent

Large-scale AI programs

AI governance

Ontology engineering

Semantic technologies

Knowledge graphs

RAG architectures

Tools

SAP Datasphere

SAP HANA Cloud Knowledge Graph Engine

SAP Business Data Cloud

SAP One Domain Model

SAP Graph API

SAP Business Accelerator Hub

Job description

We help the world run better
At SAP, we keep it simple: you bring your best to us, and we'll bring out the best in you. We're builders touching over 20 industries and 80% of global commerce, and we need your unique talents to help shape what's next. The work is challenging – but it matters. You'll find a place where you can be yourself, prioritize your wellbeing, and truly belong. What's in it for you? Constant learning, skill growth, great benefits, and a team that wants you to grow and succeed.

The context engine that makes AIenterprise ready.

Anyone can build an AI agent. What makes SAP's agents different is accuracy grounded in the richest enterprise data and process context in the world. As part of our Data and Applied Science team, you'll build the context enginegrounded in SAP’s Business ontology: the semantic infrastructure that transforms raw business data into the knowledge layer powering SAP's AI agents and assistants.

What you'll build:

The Data and Applied Science team will build the semantic and contextual foundation of SAP's AI. While generic AI agents operate on surface-level patterns, SAP agents are accurate because they understand the real semantics of enterprise business master data, process flows, and domain relationships. Your team will build and scale the layer that makes that possible.

What you'll bring:

Requirements for this position include the following:

Leadership & Strategic Skills

• 10+ years proven experience leading, mentoring, and growing high-performing teams of data scientists, machine learning engineers, and AI practitioners, with a strong track record of driving complex AI initiatives from concept to production across multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Ability to define technical strategy, establish team priorities, and align AI investments with business objectives, product roadmaps, and customer outcomes.
• Experience building a culture of technical excellence, operational rigor, and continuous learning.
• Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills, with the ability to influence senior leadership and translate technical concepts into business value.
• 5+ years of people management experience leading data science and AI teams, with demonstrated success hiring, coaching, and retaining top AI talent.
• Proven experience delivering large-scale AI programs across multiple teams and businessunits andpartnering with senior executives to define AI strategy and investment priorities.
• Experience leading globally distributed teams and cross-organizational AI initiatives, including managing budgets, hiring plans, vendor relationships, and strategic partnerships.
• Experience defining AI adoption strategies, measuring business impact through KPIs, and establishing reusable enterprise AI platforms, governance frameworks, and shared services across multiple product areas.
• Thought leadership demonstrated through patents, publications, conference presentations, open-source contributions, or industry recognition in AI, knowledge graphs, semantic technologies, or enterprise intelligence.
• Knowledge of SAP’s domains, data models, metadata structures and core business processes end-to-end.
• Experience with the SAP data and AI platform stack SAP Datasphere, SAP HANA Cloud Knowledge Graph Engine, SAP Business Data Cloud, SAP One Domain Model, SAP Graph API, and SAP Business Accelerator Hub.

Key Knowledge and Abilities:

• Experience defining AI/ML architecture, platform strategy, model governance, responsible AI practices, and operational frameworks for enterprise-scale deployments.
• Ability to evaluate emerging AI technologies and establish best practices for ML Ops, LLM Ops, and model lifecycle management-making pragmatic build-versus-buy decisions across platform investments and technology roadmaps.
• Strong domain expertise in ontology engineering, semantic technologies, metadata management, entity resolution, taxonomies, and knowledge representation, with demonstrated experience designing, building, and scaling ontology-driven enterprise intelligence solutions, including knowledge graphs, semantic layers, and business knowledge models.
• Experience integrating knowledge graphs and ontology layers with machine learning, generative AI, agentic AI, RAG architectures, and enterprise data platforms to improve reasoning, explainability, grounding, and business context.
• Ability to collaborate with domain experts and business stakeholders to translate complex business processes, data assets, and enterprise knowledge into reusable semantic and knowledge graph frameworks.
• Deep knowledge of SAP application data models, domain processes, and enterprise data architecture, with the ability to apply this understanding to design ontologies, semantic layers, and knowledge graph solutions that accurately reflect SAP's business and application context.

Dataand Applied Science– General Job Profile Skills

• Ability to conduct Machine Learning Model Training. Employees who excel in this skill have expertise in statistics, computer science, and mathematics, as well as proficiency in software tools and programming languages. They are capable of selecting the right algorithm for a problem, preparing data sets, and testing model accuracy.
• Ability to utilize deep learning and neural networks to enable machines to learn from data and make decisions. Employees who excel in this skill have specialized abilities in mathematics, programming, and data analysis, making them highly coveted in the tech industry.
• Ability to design, build, and maintain infrastructure for data collection, transformation, storage, and analysis. Employees who excel in this skill have a high level of technical expertise in programming, data modeling, and data visualization.

Agentic Orchestration

• Ability to design, delegate, and supervise multi-agent workflows involving autonomous AI agents with multi-step reasoning and coordination. Employees who excel in this skill manage task decomposition, agent communication, error handling, quality human validation, and design agent harnesses for long-running tasks, context durability, tool lifecycle, and sub-agent coordination.

Semantic Retrieval

• Ability to design, implement, and optimize semantic search and retrieval architectures including RAG pipelines, knowledge graphs, and hybrid vector/keyword search systems and Lakehouse architectures. Employees who excel in this skill have deep expertise in embedding models, retrieval optimization techniques, and modern data architecture patterns.

Where you belong:

Join a collaborative, forward-thinking team defining how enterprise AI actuallyworks on aglobal scale. You'll work alongside curious engineers, thoughtful product minds, and applied researchers all focused on building AI that customers can trust in the highest-stakes business processes. There's room to grow into new technical spaces, ship real impact, and shape SAP's AI future. If you value learning, real ownership, and building foundational infrastructure that matters, you'll feel at home here.

Bring out your best

SAP innovations help more than four hundred thousand customers worldwide work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively. Originally known for leadership in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, SAP has evolved to become a market leader in end-to-end business application software and related services for database, analytics, intelligent technologies, and experience management. As a cloud company with two hundred million users and more than one hundred thousand employees worldwide, we are purpose-driven and future-focused, with a highly collaborative team ethic and commitment to personal development. Whether connecting global industries, people, or platforms, we help ensure every challenge gets the solution it deserves. At SAP, you can bring out your best.
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.
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.

Compensation Range Transparency

SAP believes the value of pay transparency contributes towards an honest and supportive culture and is a significant step towards demonstrating SAP’s commitment to pay equity. SAP provides the annualized compensation range inclusive of base salary and variable incentive target for the career level applicable to the posted role. The targeted annual combined range for this position is 274300-609200(USD) . The actual amount to be offered to the successful candidate will be within that range, dependent upon the key aspects of each case which may include education, skills, experience, scope of the role, location, etc. as determined through the selection process. Any SAP variable incentive includes a targeted dollar amount and any actual payout amount is dependent on company and personal performance. Please reference this link for a summary of SAP benefits and eligibility requirements: SAP North America Benefits .

We are ethical and compliant

Our leadership credo: Do what’s right. Make SAP better for generations to come. We believe that great leadership extends far beyond the mere pursuit of business goals. We value and foster leadership that is driven with purpose and integrity. Our leaders are role models who uphold SAP’s values and shape SAP’s culture of integrity, by demonstrating and championing ethical and compliant behavior towards all stakeholders.

Please note that any violation of these guidelines may result in disqualification from the hiring process.

Nearest Major Market: San Jose
Nearest Secondary Market: Palo Alto
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