Managing Director, Director

Spotlight Partners; Grand Rapids (MI); Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 290,000; Full time

Job summary

Spotlight Partners is seeking a senior technology leader to define the platform and AI strategy for large client programs. You will own the architecture direction, ensuring integration, data, and AI are unified across the BAIP platform.

This is a hands-on, leadership-heavy role that goes beyond slides to real delivery. You will lead Beacon's technical offerings and establish governance, scale teams, and maintain client relationships where architecture is pivotal.

Qualifications

• 10+ years enterprise technology delivery, including 3+ years hands-on with SAP BTP or BAIP.
• Architecture leadership with standards and trade-offs.
• Experience shipping software as a product with versioning and release management.

Responsibilities

• Set platform and AI architecture direction for client programs and Spotlight references.
• Architect BAIP extensibility with CAP and RAP; decide on S/4HANA extensibility as appropriate.
• Own integration architecture: SAP Integration Suite, iFlows, API Management, Event Mesh, and data stack connections.
• Design the data layer with SAP Business Data Cloud, Datasphere, HANA Cloud, and data product modeling.
• Build AI capability that can survive audits: Generative AI Hub, Joule Studio, Knowledge Graph, and robust retrieval patterns.

Job description

The role

SAP renamed Business Technology Platform to SAP Business AI Platform in 2026 and brought its data and AI capabilities under the same roof. That rename is not cosmetic. It is SAP declaring that extension, integration, data, and AI are one architectural problem. This role owns that problem for our clients and sets the technical direction for our firm.

You are the person who keeps the ERP core clean. Every extension, every integration, every AI agent our clients want either belongs on the platform or does not get built. You make that call, you architect the solution, and you stay close enough to the build to know it works. This is a senior role, not a slideware role.

You will also lead the technical side of Beacon, turning what our engineering team proves out into software we can sell, deploy, and support. At Managing Director level you own the platform and AI practice: the offerings, the team, and the client relationships where architecture is the deciding factor.

What you’ll do

• Set platform and AI architecture direction for client programs and for Spotlight: reference architectures, standards, and the patterns our teams reuse.
• Architect side-by-side extensibility on BAIP using CAP and RAP, and make the honest call on when key-user extensibility inside S/4HANA is the right answer instead.
• Own integration architecture. SAP Integration Suite, iFlows, API Management, Event Mesh, and the connections from S/4HANA out to MES, WMS, PLM, EDI, quality systems, and the non-SAP data stack: Fivetran, Snowflake, Databricks, and whatever the client already owns.
• Design the data layer. SAP Business Data Cloud, Datasphere, HANA Cloud, and data product modeling that makes business data usable by AI without duplicating it into six places.
• Build AI capability that survives an audit. AI Foundation, Generative AI Hub, Joule Studio agent development, SAP Knowledge Graph, and retrieval patterns that ground agents in real business context rather than plausible-sounding output.
• Establish platform governance. Global account and subaccount topology, identity and authorization design, transport management (CTMS), lifecycle and DevOps, and consumption cost control so the client is not surprised by their credit burn in month four.
• Advise CIOs and CFOs on the boundary question. What belongs in the ERP core, what belongs on BAIP, and what should live entirely outside SAP. Mid-market clients get this wrong constantly and pay for it at every upgrade.
• Productize Beacon. Lead the architecture that turns proven capabilities into versioned, supportable software: release management, deployment patterns, documentation, and the support model behind it.
• Lead technical pursuits. Be the architect in the room during the sales cycle, scope solutions honestly, and build the credibility that wins the work. At Managing Director level, own client relationships and grow the platform practice.
• Build and mentor the team. Hire and develop the architects and engineers who work on client programs and on Beacon.

What you bring

• 10+ years of enterprise technology delivery, including 3+ years hands-on with SAP BTP or BAIP. You have shipped things to production on the platform, not just attended enablement. Managing Director candidates typically bring 15+ years and experience leading a technology practice or platform team.
• Architecture leadership. You have led architects or engineers, set standards they followed, and owned the call when the trade-offs were hard.
• Development depth in CAP or RAP, with working proficiency in Node.js or Java, plus SAPUI5 or Fiori.
• Strong SAP Integration Suite and Cloud Integration experience: real iFlows, real error handling, real production support scars.
• Familiarity with Cloud Foundry and Kyma runtimes and the trade-offs between them.
• Working knowledge of Datasphere, Business Data Cloud, or HANA Cloud data modeling.
• Practical generative AI experience: LLM integration, RAG patterns, prompt and agent design, and a clear-eyed view of where AI adds value versus where it adds risk.
• Experience shipping software as a product, not just as a project deliverable. Versioning, release management, documentation, and supportability.
• The ability to explain an architecture decision to a CFO in business terms. Our clients are mid-market. There is no enterprise architecture committee to hide behind.
• Bachelor’s in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• SAP certifications in BTP Extensions, Integration Suite, or the successor BAIP credentials.

Bonus points

• Hyperscaler depth in AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• SAP Analytics Cloud, including planning.
• Manufacturing systems background: MES, IoT, and shop floor integration.
• Open-source AI framework experience outside the SAP stack.
• SAP Build or Build Process Automation.

The details

• Level: Managing Director or Director, based on experience
• Location: Hybrid
• Employment: Full-time
• Experience: 10+ years enterprise technolo