Forward Deployed Application Engineering Chief Expert (f/m/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 Build

In this role, you design, build, and deploy AI-native data and application solutions embedded directly within customer environments and fast-moving delivery teams. You act as the chief technical authority and strategic leader, combining cloud-native software engineering with production-grade AI capabilities. You define the architecture, technical direction, and delivery standards for complex, innovative, and business-critical applications that address real-world business problems with speed and directly support SAP’s strategic objectives and long-term competitiveness. You operate at the intersection of strategy and execution, ensuring that multiple high impact initiatives deliver scalable, secure, and reliable outcomes. Recognized internally and externally as a leading expert, you influence SAP’s broader technology direction and enable responsible adoption of advanced AI driven application architectures.

In this role, you will:

• Define and own the architecture and technical strategy for complex, AI-native enterprise applications with significant business impact.
• Govern and drive the delivery of outcomes across multiple high-impact, high-risk programs, ensuring alignment with SAP’s strategic, customer, and financial objectives.
• Embed directly into customer projects and fast moving cross functional teams to rapidly understand business processes, technical landscapes, and operational challenges.
• Act as the final escalation point for complex technical and delivery challenges, resolving risks and trade-offs at enterprise scale.
• Champion advanced and breakthrough AI-assisted engineering approaches that create competitive advantage and shape SAP’s long-term technology roadmap.
• Represent SAP as a trusted technical authority with senior customers, partners, and internal stakeholders.
• Provide technical vision, standards, and guidance that enable consistency, quality, and scalability across application engineering initiatives.
• Mentor and enable senior engineers and experts, fostering excellence, innovation, and knowledge sharing across the community.

What You Bring

• You demonstrate a proactive approach to leveraging AI in everyday workflows, ensuring high‑quality outputs through thoughtful context design and system integration.
• Deepest level of professional expertise in AI native application or software engineering, with broad experience across enterprise architectures and platforms.
• Proven track record of leading complex, high impact programs and influencing technical direction beyond individual projects.
• Proven ability to work in an Agentic AI context, shaping and applying AI agents that act autonomously within defined boundaries, collaborate with human stakeholders, and deliver measurable business outcomes in customer centric environments.
• Advanced knowledge of large-scale AI enabled systems, leveraging large language models, RAG architectures, vector databases, and agentic systems including ML driven architectures.
• Proficient in AI/ML Python libraries and frameworks, data pipelines, MLOps, and agent-driven engineering practices.
• Ability to advise and influence senior and executive stakeholders on strategic technical decisions and trade-offs.
• Recognition as a trusted authority or thought leader in application engineering, internally and externally.
• Strong leadership, communication, and mentoring capabilities in highly complex and ambiguous environments.

Where You Belong

You will be part of a growing AI and industry expert team dedicated to serving customers across the region (Americas, Europe, Asia). We are building a collaborative, high-impact environment that brings together deep AI expertise, strong industry knowledge, and regional understanding to help customers innovate, transform, and lead in their markets.

This team thrives on working together to turn complex business challenges into practical, scalable solutions. You will find an environment that values curiosity, ownership, and continuous learning, where new ideas are encouraged and real-world impact matters. This is a place for people who enjoy building something new. You will thrive here if you are customer-centric, motivated by meaningful outcomes, and comfortable navigating ambiguity in a fast-evolving AI landscape.

We work closely with decision-makers, challenge assumptions with data, and give data scientists room to influence strategy—not just produce analysis. We value sharp thinking, business curiosity, and clear communication.

​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: 453905 | Work Area: Software-Development Operations | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid