Development Manager Optimization, Quantum & AI (m/f/d)

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.

What you’ll do:

Enterprise software is shifting from passive process infrastructure to active decision infrastructure. SAP is pioneering autonomous enterprise decision systems that combine optimization science, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence to help organizations navigate complexity and execute under real-world constraints.
The Development Manager Optimization, Quantum & AI will lead the transformation of an established data science team into a strategic contributor to SAP’s autonomous decision infrastructure. You will manage a team with ten years of experience in classical analytics and guide their evolution toward building decision-capable systems that evaluate, optimize, orchestrate, and execute under dynamic constraints.
This role requires dual leadership: transforming team capabilities while leveraging deep domain expertise to accelerate impact. You will bridge classical data science with decision infrastructure—moving from descriptive analytics to prescriptive systems, from model building to architecture design, and from standalone insights to integrated execution platforms. As transformation progresses, the team’s scope will expand across SAP’s entire application portfolio, positioning them as the core engine of SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise with Quantum Brain.

The Role:
• Lead the technical transformation of an established data science team toward autonomous decision systems, building capability in optimization algorithms, constraint-based problem solving, and hybrid computational architectures.
• Integrate your team into the broader Optimization, Quantum & AI organization as strategic contributors to decision infrastructure, fostering collaboration with optimization engineers, quantum researchers, and AI architects.
• Develop team expertise in quantum computing concepts and identify opportunities where quantum-enhanced solutions create enterprise value.
• Build understanding of orchestration systems, execution layers, and enterprise integration requirements—positioning the team within agent layers, optimization solvers, and operational platforms.
• Maintain productivity during transformation, delivering measurable improvement in decision quality, planning speed, or operational performance while building new capabilities.
• Assess individual readiness, create personalized development plans, and manage performance honestly—recognizing growth, supporting struggles, and making difficult decisions about team composition.
• Collaborate with architects and product managers to translate business requirements from diverse domains—supply chain, finance, HR, procurement, customer operations—into decision architecture challenges, positioning the team to become the core engine for SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise with Quantum Brain across the entire application portfolio.

What you bring:
• Leadership experience in software development with proven track record leading teams through significant capability shifts or technology transitions (5+ years).
• Well-honed people management skills with demonstrated success in upskilling teams, introducing new methodologies, and delivering results during organizational change.
• Technical credibility in data science, optimization, or systems engineering sufficient to earn respect from practitioners and engage in architectural discussions.
• Experience integrating teams into broader technical organizations and breaking down silos between specialized functions.
• Understanding of how software systems operate in complex enterprise environments across multiple business domains.
• Ability to work in a multi-domain environment, crossing technical, academic, research, and business boundaries—with vision to expand team scope across SAP’s entire application portfolio.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills with ability to translate vision into concrete action.
• Highly professional and structured working style with capacity to manage complex stakeholder networks.
• Ability to thrive in dynamic environments that cross organizational boundaries while maintaining delivery accountability.
• Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, or related field; strong willingness to immerse oneself in optimization, quantum computing, and decision architecture is essential.

Meet your team:
You’ll join SAP’s Optimization, Quantum & AI organization—a team redefining what enterprise systems can do. We’re architecting decision-capable infrastructure where optimization science, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence converge into deployable systems. This team will become the core engine of SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise with Quantum Brain, expanding across the entire application portfolio. We operate with clarity about what matters: decision quality, system reliability, deployment credibility, and governance. If you want to lead teams through genuine transformation where constraints are real and strategic impact is organization-wide—this is your opportunity.

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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.

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: 453522 | Work Area: Software-Design and Development | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Management | Employment Type: Regular Full Time or Part-Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid

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