Chief Development Architect

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.

Position Overview

We are looking for a Chief Development Architect to define and drive the architectural vision across a strategic SAP product portfolio. As a senior individual contributor, you will ensure alignment with SAP's technology guidelines, champion AI and cloud-native innovation, and establish engineering best practices that scale across multiple products and technology stacks.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the cross-portfolio architectural vision and strategy, aligning technical decisions with SAP's corporate objectives and product roadmaps
• Establish reference architectures, guardrails, and blueprints for AI-driven, cloud-native, and SaaS solutions
• Lead architectural governance through design reviews, decision records, and enforcement of SAP's technology guidelines
• Drive adoption of modern technologies and architectures, including agentic AI, generative AI, and event-driven architectures, through reusable patterns, reference implementations, and technical enablement
• Ensure architectural consistency, scalability, security, and integration quality across the portfolio; define and validate non-functional requirements, SLOs, and SLAs
• Design modernization and migration paths, and guide engineering teams through execution via influence and expertise
• Represent SAP in customer and partner technical forums; translate external feedback into architectural improvements
• Mentor architects and engineers through design clinics and communities of practice, elevating architectural rigor across the organization
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with cross-product architecture, platform, AI Core, and security stakeholders to resolve dependencies and align direction

What You Bring

• 12+ years of experience in enterprise architecture or product engineering for enterprise business applications (e.g., SAP or similar)
• Deep expertise in ERP platforms, cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, GCP), and enterprise architecture frameworks
• Strong academic background in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field
• Proven ability to lead technically and influence across diverse, distributed teams without direct authority
• Hands-on experience with AI-driven architectures and generative-AI use cases, including integration patterns and responsible AI practices
• Track record of designing extensibility frameworks and clean API strategies in enterprise software
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with data-driven approach to architectural decisions
• Excellent communication and presentation skills for both technical and executive audiences

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: Careers@sap.com.

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 toward 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 combined range for this position is 362800 - 605600 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.

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: 447867 | Work Area: Software-Design and Development | Expected Travel: 0 - 30% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid

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