Distinguished AI Architect
SAP· enterprise· Enterprise Software· Oct 9, 2026 · 19d ago
Palo Alto, CA, US, 94304
Hybrid
Full-time
Principal
$143K–$219K est.
12+ years exp
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
The Office of the CTO (oCTO) for IndustryAI sits at the intersection of the SAP Business AI Platform (BAIP), Industry Product & Engineering, the LoB application teams, and FDE engagements with strategic customers. The Architecture team inside oCTO does not own architecture strategy for any single industry or LoB — that lives with the product and engineering organizations. What we own is the AI-native and agentic architecture strategy for IndustryAI: the long-term architectural vision, the standards that govern how systems are designed and governed at scale, and the leadership required to ensure that IndustryAI's engineering capabilities compound over time.
As Distinguished AI Architect, you define the strategic architectural direction and long-term vision for AI-native systems and enterprise ML platforms across IndustryAI. You operate at organizational scope — setting the standard for how large-scale AI-native systems are architected, governing cross-organizational architecture reviews, and representing SAP's architectural capabilities with executives, partners, and strategic customers. You are expected to drive multi-year transformational programs, mentor principal and senior architects, and ensure that IndustryAI's architectural foundation is secure, scalable, and aligned with the responsible adoption of technologies that are still evolving. In this role you will:
• Define the strategic architectural direction and multi-year vision for AI-native systems and enterprise ML platforms across IndustryAI — steering platformization at scale and aligning architecture with product strategy and business objectives.
• Set and enforce architectural standards and governance across IndustryAI engineering organizations — MLOps, observability, security, responsible AI, and compliance with global regulatory requirements.
• Oversee cross-organizational architecture reviews, evaluate major technical decisions before commitment, and ensure that architectural debt is tracked and addressed systematically.
• Lead multi-year transformational programs: decompose complex, organization-wide architectural challenges into executable programs and drive them to completion across engineering, platform, and product organizations.
• Evaluate emerging technologies — LLMs, agentic orchestration, RAG, multi-agent systems, knowledge graphs, edge AI — for responsible adoption at enterprise scale, and translate those evaluations into concrete architectural direction.
• Represent IndustryAI architecture with executives, strategic customers, and technology partners — communicate long-term architectural strategy with credibility and precision, and shape partner relationships around architectural alignment.
• Contribute organizational-level architectural requirements to BAIP: define what the platform must deliver over a multi-year horizon to support IndustryAI's strategic architectural direction.
• Build and develop SAP's architecture capability within IndustryAI: mentor principal and senior architects, establish architectural review standards and documentation practices, and grow the next generation of architectural leadership.
• Ensure compliance with global security, privacy, and data governance requirements across IndustryAI systems, and proactively identify architectural risks with regulatory or business-continuity implications.
• Partner with SAP's CTO office, platform leadership, and external technology organizations to ensure IndustryAI's architectural direction is coherent with SAP's broader AI strategy.
What you'll bring
• A distinguished record of defining enterprise-wide AI-native and ML architecture strategy, guiding multi-team engineering initiatives, and driving scalable, secure, and responsible adoption across complex product portfolios.
• Proven experience architecting and delivering enterprise-scale ML platforms and agentic AI systems: cloud-native infrastructure, distributed systems, multi-agent orchestration, semantic retrieval, knowledge graph platforms, and evaluation harness engineering.
• Demonstrated ability to set long-term architectural direction and influence global engineering practices — including governance frameworks, standardization programs, and organizational change at scale.
• Executive-level credibility to represent architectural decisions with senior stakeholders, technology partners, and strategic customers.
• Deep knowledge of cloud-native MLOps at scale: infrastructure as code, observability stacks, CI/CD pipelines, responsible AI frameworks, and regulatory compliance across global cloud environments.
• Strong business acumen: the ability to connect architectural decisions to product and commercial outcomes, and to defend those connections rigorously.
• Experience leading multi-year architectural transformation programs across large engineering organizations — including stakeholder alignment, program governance, and execution at scale.
• Demonstrated track record of building architecture capability: mentoring senior and principal architects, establishing review standards, and growing technical leadership depth.
• 12+ years of professional experience in software architecture, platform engineering, or AI/ML systems roles, with significant time at enterprise scale in cloud or SaaS.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related discipline; advanced degree is a plus.
• Domain fluency in one or more SAP-relevant areas (supply chain, manufacturing, asset management, procurement) is a strong plus.
Meet your team
The Office of the CTO for IndustryAI is where SAP's AI strategy comes to life. We connect the SAP Business AI Platform (BAIP) to the industry vertical requirements and LoB applications customers use every day, and we pair that with a Forward Deployed Engineering muscle that ships AI outcomes with strategic customers. The architectural direction we set is grounded in those engagements; the standards we establish exist to make those patterns scale across SAP's global engineering organization.
The Architecture team inside oCTO owns the AI-native and agentic architecture strategy for IndustryAI — the long-term vision, the governance framework, and the organizational capability to ensure IndustryAI builds on a foundation that compounds. Architecture for any given industry or product stays with the engineering organizations; our mandate is to make sure that foundation is sound, that the standards are adopted, and that the discipline matures as the technology evolves.
You will join a small group of senior AI architects inside oCTO IndustryAI operating at the intersection of technical depth, organizational influence, and long-term strategic thinking. The T5 mandate is the hardest one: to see far enough ahead that the decisions made today don't become the constraints of tomorrow, and to build the architectural capability across IndustryAI that makes that possible. If you want to define how one of the world's largest enterprise software companies architects AI-native systems at scale, and you are prepared for the organizational complexity that comes with that mandate, this is the right role.
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 annual combined range for this position is 274300-609200USD . 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: 457481 | Work Area: Customer Service and Support | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Executive | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid
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