Data Science Senior Manager

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.

About SAP Business Network

SAP Business Network connects millions of companies worldwide, enabling intelligent collaboration across procurement, supply chain, logistics, and financial processes. The organization is on a mission to make this network self-optimizing — leveraging Connected Intelligence to create business outcomes that no single company could achieve alone.

Purpose

To develop and apply advanced data models, algorithms, and analytical techniques to extract insights, solve complex business problems, and drive informed decision-making. The role leverages data science methodologies and machine learning to deliver actionable solutions across diverse business domains.

People Leadership

As a people manager, you are responsible for supporting the success of not only your direct reports, but the success of all employees within the larger team by helping to identify development opportunities and supporting team members to achieve their goals. You are expected to know about the members of your extended team and share insights with your peer managers.

• Act as a role model by coaching and recognizing direct reports, providing just-in-time feedback and expecting the same of your direct reports.

• Lead multiple Data and AI teams on-site at NPB, fostering a strong in-office culture of collaboration, engagement, and continuous growth.

• Build and scale new AI-native teams within the Business Network Core organization — hiring top talent and establishing best practices for AI-first development.

• Actively manage organizational change and enable people managers in own area of responsibility.

• Realize skills gaps well in advance and drive execution of up-skilling strategy; take appropriate steps to ensure retention in critical phases.

• Create an environment of continuous learning and improvement; regularly offer feedback to help others develop and support them in setting challenging development goals.

Strategic Direction

• Manage the Data and AI unit by continuously adapting its focus and execution capabilities to customer/market needs, company strategy, and financial objectives.

• Function as the operational link between the company's overall strategy and achieving business results; set direction through a clear vision, strategy, and business plan.

• Build execution plans with the management team and monitor execution against the business plan; manage critical resource situations and their impact on deliverables.

• Maintain in-depth knowledge of trends in Data Science and AI and translate those into strategy for SBN.

• Report regularly to senior executive steering committees and advise on strategic Data and AI topics.

• Act as role model and spokesperson for SAP inside and outside the organization.

Data Foundation & AI-Native Development

Transitioning into the SAP Business Network space, this role is central to building a comprehensive Data Foundation and advanced Analytics capabilities that support a unified ecosystem leveraging Connected Intelligence and a sophisticated Reasoning Engine to automate complex business logic across the network. Technical skills from SBN are rapidly converging as configuration logic and forecasting models evolve into the primary inputs for autonomous reasoning — transforming traditional software development into a specialized discipline of AI-driven data orchestration and intelligent systems.

• Define and execute the Data Foundation strategy for SBN, enabling a unified data ecosystem that supports Connected Intelligence and autonomous business logic.

• Lead the design and development of Reasoning Engine components that automate complex business processes across the Business Network.

• Align Data and AI capabilities with the converging technical landscape of SBN — translating configuration logic and forecasting models into primary inputs for autonomous AI reasoning systems.

• Oversee development and deployment of advanced ML and AI models including forecasting, recommendation, classification, and generative AI applications.

• Architect AI-driven data orchestration pipelines that serve the Business Network's operational and analytical needs at scale.

• Establish model governance, MLOps practices, and quality standards across all AI/ML workstreams.

• Partner with SBN Product, Engineering, and Architecture leadership to embed intelligent data systems into the core product roadmap.

Applied Data & AI Science

• Design and implement mathematical models, algorithms, and data mining processes into products, prototypes, and/or business processes to solve business problems.

• Analyze large and complex datasets to identify trends, patterns, opportunities, and areas for improvement.

• Develop and apply machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to derive actionable insights.

• Present findings and recommendations to cross-functional stakeholders to inform strategic decisions.

What You Will Build

• A Data Foundation powering the entire SBN ecosystem with reliable, governed, high-quality data.

• AI-native teams — net-new squads building the next generation of intelligent capabilities for the Business Network Core.

• A Reasoning Engine automating complex business logic and workflow decisions across SAP's global supplier and buyer network.

• Forecasting and configuration models serving as primary inputs to autonomous AI decision systems.

• A collaborative, high-trust team culture at NPB that makes this one of the most sought-after Data and AI organizations in SAP.

Qualifications & Skills

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, or a related quantitative field.

• 8+ years of progressive experience in Data Science, Machine Learning, or related technical fields.

• 3+ years of experience managing and leading technical teams, including senior individual contributors and team leads.

• Proven track record of delivering large-scale ML/AI solutions in production environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in a quantitative discipline.

• Experience in B2B SaaS or enterprise software, ideally within the SAP Business Network domain.

• Hands-on experience with LLMs, generative AI, reasoning systems, or agentic AI architectures.

• Deep expertise in data orchestration platforms, feature engineering at scale, and MLOps tooling.

• Prior experience building or transforming teams in a high-growth or reorganization context.

• Familiarity with SAP BTP, SAP AI Core, or SAP AI Foundation.

Technical Skills

• Advanced ML & AI: solid understanding of supervised/unsupervised learning, time series forecasting, NLP, and deep learning concepts — sufficient to evaluate, challenge, and guide team output.

• Generative AI & LLMs: familiarity with prompt engineering, fine-tuning, RAG architectures, and agentic AI frameworks.

• Data platforms: working knowledge of Databricks, Snowflake, SAP Datasphere, or equivalent cloud-native data platforms.

• Data architecture: understanding of lakehouse patterns, real-time streaming (Kafka, Spark), and data mesh principles — sufficient to set direction and make architectural decisions.

• MLOps: awareness of experiment tracking (e.g. MLflow), model serving, CI/CD for ML pipelines, and drift monitoring — to govern standards across teams.

• Programming: Python (primary), SQL — sufficient for technical discussions, design reviews, and evaluating team work.

• Cloud: AWS, GCP, or Azure in enterprise/multi-cloud contexts.

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, age, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, et al), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status, or disability.

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 annual combined range for this position is 244700-553900USD. 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.

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: 449328 | Work Area: Software-Design and Development | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Executive | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid