Senior Machine Learning Engineer-Office of the CTO

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. 

Job Title: Senior Engineer – Distributed Systems & AI, Office of the CTO

What you’ll do

As part of the Office of the CTO (OCTO) team, you will work on strategic technology topics that directly support the SAP CTO’s mandate and influence the future direction of SAP’s technology landscape. The role involves driving initiatives around prototyping, showcase development, and experimentation with emerging technologies, while researching internal and external products, concepts, and architectures.

You will contribute to concept and strategy papers and collaborate closely with product development and product management teams to accelerate the creation and customer adoption of Reference Architectures. A strong combination of systems thinking, abstraction skills, and hands-on coding expertise is valuable for success in this role.

Your work will involve:

• Developing tooling and content for the SAP Architecture Center, including reference architectures across Platform, Data, and AI, covering distributed applications, event-driven patterns, enterprise integration, and agentic workflows.
• Exploring emerging technologies and approaches for building enterprise applications, including distributed systems, data processing, and the integration of AI and agents into business workflows.
• Prototyping and building proof-points that demonstrate technical feasibility, evaluate design trade-offs, and influence company-wide strategic decisions.
• Contributing to research, concept notes, technical investigations, and strategy documents, including the AI Native North Star Architecture.
• Providing technology due diligence for buy and partner decisions by evaluating external products, vendors, and technology partners against SAP’s strategic architecture direction.
• Participating as a key contributor in company-wide strategic initiatives, including All in on AI, AI Native North Star Architecture, CTO Circle, and the SAP Architecture Center.
• Contributing to Executive Board (EB/CTO/CEO) projects, driving cross-organizational technical alignment and informing SAP’s technology strategy.

What you bring

• A degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience in software development and system design.
• Experience designing and developing distributed systems and applications.
• Strong hands-on development skills, with the ability to translate concepts into working prototypes and evaluate their suitability for enterprise use.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language, such as Java, Node.js/TypeScript, Python, or Go.
• Hands-on development experience with SAP Business Technology Platform.
• Experience integrating applications, services, and data through APIs, messaging, or event-driven approaches.
• Understanding of agile software development and lifecycle management best practices, including GitHub, CI/CD, and testing.
• Interest in exploring AI and emerging technologies and applying them to enterprise problems.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to convey complex technical topics and design trade-offs to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong collaboration skills and a proactive, can-do attitude.

Additional experience that would be valuable

• Experience developing GenAI/LLM applications or agentic workflows, including retrieval, tool integration, and evaluation.
• Familiarity with SAP AI Core, SAP Business Data Cloud, or SAP Joule.
• Experience with hyperscalers such as Azure, GCP, or AWS and technology partners.
• Familiarity with responsible AI practices, output grounding, and hallucination mitigation.
• Experience evaluating external technologies and translating findings into technical recommendations.

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.  

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: [email protected].

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.

Successful candidates might be required to undergo a background verification with an external vendor.

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.

Requisition ID: 453598  | Work Area: Software-Design and Development  | Expected Travel: 0 - 10%  | Career Status: Professional  | Employment Type: Regular Full Time   | Additional Locations:  #LI-Hybrid