SAP NS2 Landscape Automation Expert

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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.

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

SAP is the global market leader for business software and related services, and SAP National Security Services Inc.® (SAP NS2®) is an independent U.S. subsidiary, offering SAP solutions with specialized levels of security and support to meet the requirements of U.S. national security and critical infrastructure customers.

Must be a US Citizen; this position requires access to customer data. All internals must have Manager’s approval to transfer.

Position Overview

We are seeking a highly hands-on Automation Architect to help define and execute our vision for end-to-end automation and increasingly autonomous operations across the SAP Basis R&R. We are looking for a technology professional with a strong software development and engineering background who naturally thinks in terms of workflows, automation, APIs, orchestration, event-driven architectures, and AI-enabled operations.

The successful candidate will identify operational processes that are manual, repetitive, or error-prone and transform them into scalable, reusable, automated, and AI-enabled solutions.

The individual will work closely with SAP operations, development, infrastructure and security to turn ideas into production-ready solutions.

The overall objective is to move SAP operations from Manual to Scripted to Automated to AI-Assisted to Autonomous

Key Responsibilities:

Drive the SAP NS2’s Zero Ops Vision

• Help define and execute the technical roadmap for Zero Ops and autonomous operations across SAP NS2.
• Identify opportunities to eliminate, simplify, automate, or make autonomous existing operational processes.
• Develop an automation opportunity pipeline based on operational pain points, business value, complexity, risk, and feasibility.
• Challenge traditional operational approaches and identify opportunities to improve reliability, speed, and efficiency through technology.
• Establish reusable automation patterns rather than developing isolated scripts or point solutions.
• Work with SAP and enterprise operations teams to understand current processes and identify opportunities for transformation.

Identify and Design End-to-End Automation Workflows

• Analyze operational processes from trigger to completion, rather than automating individual tasks in isolation.
• Design workflows that can detect an event, collect relevant information, analyze the situation, determine an action, execute the action, and validate the outcome.
• Translate operational requirements into technical workflows, APIs, automation services, and reusable components.
• Identify opportunities to introduce event-driven automation and closed-loop remediation.
• Define appropriate human-in-the-loop, approval, exception-handling, rollback, and validation mechanisms.
• Develop prototypes and proofs of concept to rapidly demonstrate automation opportunities.

The candidate should naturally think Event, Detect, Gather Data, Diagnose, Decide, Approve, Execute, Validate, Document, Learn

Software Development & Engineering

• Design and develop production-quality automation services and applications.
• Build APIs, microservices, workflow components, integrations, and automation frameworks.
• Use strong software engineering practices including Git, code reviews, testing, CI/CD, logging, monitoring, and documentation.
• Develop reusable and maintainable automation components rather than one-off scripts.
• Apply engineering principles such as modularity, idempotency, error handling, retries, rollback, testing, and observability.
• Work closely with development teams to integrate automation capabilities into enterprise platforms.

Strong software development experience is a core requirement for this role.

Automation Engineering

• Design and implement automation using Ansible, Python, APIs, orchestration platforms, and event-driven technologies.
• Build reusable Ansible playbooks, roles, modules, and automation frameworks.
• Integrate automation with SAP, cloud platforms, monitoring systems, ITSM platforms, and enterprise APIs.
• Automate operational workflows across SAP, operating systems, infrastructure, and supporting services.
• Establish automation standards, reusable patterns, and best practices.
• Build mechanisms for automated validation and safe remediation.

The expectation is to treat automation as software engineering, not simply scripting.

AI & Agentic Automation

• Identify practical opportunities to use AI and generative AI to improve SAP operations.
• Develop AI-assisted capabilities for incident analysis, troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, knowledge retrieval, and remediation recommendations.
• Explore and develop agentic workflows where AI can interact with enterprise tools and approved automation capabilities.
• Integrate AI agents with APIs, workflow engines, monitoring platforms, and automation frameworks.
• Establish appropriate guardrails, permissions, approval mechanisms, auditability, and human oversight.
• Evaluate AI solutions based on accuracy, reliability, security, operational value, and scalability.
• Stay current with emerging AI and agentic technologies and identify opportunities to apply them to enterprise operations.

The candidate does not need to be an AI researcher. The expectation is that they can apply AI to real operational problems.

SAP Operations

• Develop a strong understanding of RISE with SAP architecture, operating models, and operational processes.
• Work closely with SAP Basis and SAP application teams to understand operational challenges and identify automation opportunities.
• Develop automation around SAP system health, monitoring, troubleshooting, configuration, operational checks, and remediation.
• Understand SAP HANA and relevant SAP infrastructure and operating-system dependencies.
• Work with SAP APIs, interfaces, monitoring mechanisms, and integration capabilities.
• Translate SAP operational requirements into automation and software solutions.

Deep SAP Basis expertise is not mandatory if the candidate demonstrates strong engineering, automation, and problem-solving capabilities and can work effectively with SAP specialists.

Collaboration with Cloud Architecture

The organization has a dedicated Cloud Architecture team. This role will partner with and leverage that team rather than replace the enterprise Cloud Architect role.

The candidate will:

• Develop high-level solution concepts and technical requirements for automation solutions.
• Define application, integration, data, security, scalability, and operational requirements.
• Work with Cloud Architects to translate automation concepts into enterprise-approved cloud architectures.
• Collaborate on cloud service selection, deployment patterns, networking, IAM, security, observability, and scalability.
• Ensure solutions align with enterprise cloud standards and architecture principles.
• Communicate effectively with Cloud Architects and understand architectural trade-offs.
• Bring new automation and AI ideas to the Cloud Architecture team for assessment and implementation.

The candidate should have sufficient cloud knowledge to think architecturally and participate in cloud design discussions, but does not need to own enterprise cloud architecture.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Continuously explore emerging automation, AI, and engineering technologies.
• Identify opportunities to improve existing operational workflows.
• Build prototypes and demonstrate new ideas quickly.
• Establish a culture of experimentation followed by disciplined productionization.
• Measure the impact of automation and continuously optimize solutions.
• Share reusable patterns, lessons learned, and technical innovations across engineering and operations teams.

Required Qualifications

Software Development

• Strong professional experience in software development or software engineering.
• Strong proficiency in Python or a comparable modern programming language.
• Experience developing APIs, services, integrations, or automation platforms.
• Strong understanding of software engineering principles and design patterns.
• Experience with Git, CI/CD, testing, and production software development.
• Ability to design maintainable, scalable, and reusable software solutions.

Automation

• Strong hands-on experience with Ansible.
• Experience with Python-based automation and scripting.
• Strong knowledge of REST APIs and enterprise integrations.
• Experience designing workflows and orchestration.
• Understanding of event-driven automation.
• Experience with infrastructure or configuration automation.
• Understanding of idempotency, error handling, retries, rollback, and validation.

SAP Knowledge

• Strong understanding of SAP technical operations and architecture.
• Experience with RISE with SAP, SAP Basis, SAP HANA, or SAP infrastructure.
• Understanding of SAP monitoring, troubleshooting, integrations, and operational processes.
• Experience working with SAP technical teams in an enterprise environment.

Cloud

• Working knowledge of at least one major cloud platform such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Understanding of cloud-native architecture concepts.
• Familiarity with APIs, IAM, networking, containers/Kubernetes, event services, observability, and cloud security.
• Ability to work effectively with enterprise Cloud Architecture teams.

AI / Generative AI

• Practical experience with generative AI and/or LLM-based applications.
• Understanding of AI agents, tool calling, RAG, or AI-enabled workflows.
• Experience integrating AI with APIs or enterprise applications is highly desirable.
• Understanding of AI security, governance, guardrails, and human-in-the-loop concepts.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with one or more of the following is highly desirable:

• RISE with SAP
• SAP HANA
• SAP Basis
• Ansible Automation Platform
• Python
• REST/API development
• Event-driven architecture
• Workflow orchestration
• Kubernetes
• Infrastructure-as-Code
• CI/CD
• DevOps / Platform Engineering
• SRE / observability
• ITSM automation
• Generative AI
• Agentic AI
• RAG
• Enterprise integration
• Cloud-native application development

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a developer and automation engineer at heart who has evolved into an architect-level thinker. They are someone who understands the operational activity is performed manually every week and understands why it is manual; what triggers the activity; what information is required; what decisions are being made; which APIs or systems contain the required information; can the decision be codified; can Ansible or another automation technology execute the action; can AI assist with diagnosis or decision-making; how can the workflow validate the result; what happens when something goes wrong; can this be turned into a reusable capability; workflow and automation mindset is more important than any individual technology listed in this job description.

Key Competencies

• Software Engineering Mindset
• Automation & Workflow Thinking
• SAP Technical Understanding
• AI & Agentic Automation
• API & Integration Engineering
• Cloud-Native Understanding
• Solution Architecture
• Problem Solving
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement
• Enterprise Collaboration
• Security & Reliability Mindset

Experience

10+ years of relevant technology experience, with significant hands-on experience in software development, automation, DevOps/platform engineering, SAP technology, cloud, or related areas.

We value demonstrated engineering capability and successful delivery more than the number of technologies listed on a resume.

Ideal candidate will have successfully taken automation or AI solutions from Idea to Prototype to Production to Enterprise Scale.

Success Measures

Success in this role will be measured by the ability to create tangible movement toward Zero Ops, including:

• Reduction in manual SAP operational activities.
• Increase in reusable automated workflows.
• Increase in automated incident diagnosis and remediation.
• Reduction in MTTR.
• Reduction in repeat incidents.
• Increase in AI-assisted operational capabilities.
• Number of automation and AI use cases moved successfully into production.
• Improved operational reliability and consistency.
• Reduction in operational effort and cost.
• Increased percentage of workflows that can operate with minimal human intervention.

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

Equivalent practical experience and demonstrated technical capability will also be considered.

Role Summary

The RISE with Zero Ops & AI Automation Architect will serve as a bridge between SAP operations, software engineering, automation, AI, and Cloud Architecture.

The person will be responsible for finding the opportunities, designing the workflows, building the automation, developing prototypes, and driving solutions into production, while partnering with the dedicated Cloud Architecture team for enterprise cloud architecture, standards, security, and scalability.

The ultimate objective is to transform SAP operations from human-driven processes into intelligent, automated, and increasingly autonomous operations.

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 159800-332300USD. 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: 459987 | Work Area: Information Technology | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid