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. Foundation Model Team · Newport Beach, CA Summary We're building specialized foundation models and AI agents that accelerate SAP customers' data transformation journeys. The agents you build will directly power SAP's Autonomous Enterprise, where AI runs core business processes end-to-end across finance, supply chain, HR, and procurement at global scale. You'll set technical direction, define how we architect and scale multi-agent systems, and raise the engineering bar across a global team. You'll work directly with pretraining and fine-tuning team leads in Europe, India, and early-adopter customers. We want someone who has shipped agentic systems in production and knows where they break. What you'll do • Architect and lead multi-agent systems: design, orchestration patterns, failure modes, memory, planning, and human-in-the-loop • Own the path from prototype to production: containerization, guardrails, cost and latency optimization, scalable serving • Define the team's evaluation strategy: offline/online harnesses, trajectory quality, tool-call accuracy, regression testing, CI/CD eval gates • Lead instrumentation and observability: tracing, span capture, automated scoring, closing the trace → eval → fix loop • Drive tool integration architecture via MCP across multiple product teams • Mentor junior and mid-level engineers through code and architecture reviews; set engineering standards What you bring Education: BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, ML, or a related field. Experience: 6+ years building and shipping ML systems, with 3+ years hands-on with LLMs and agents in production. Core technical skills • Expert Python; strong fundamentals: system design, testing, modularity, async, API design • PyTorch; working knowledge of fine-tuning and PEFT methods (LoRA, QLoRA) • LLM application development: prompting, structured outputs, tool calling, context management • Inference optimization: vLLM, TensorRT-LLM, quantization (int8, int4, GPTQ, AWQ) • Human-in-the-loop annotation workflows at scale Agent frameworks and orchestration (production experience with at least three) • LangGraph / LangChain • CrewAI, AutoGen/AG2, or equivalent • MCP (Model Context Protocol) • Coding agents: Claude Code, OpenCode, or similar Evaluation and observability (production experience with at least two) • Langfuse, LangSmith, Arize, or equivalent • LLM-as-judge evaluators, CI/CD eval gates Leadership • Demonstrated track record mentoring engineers and raising team technical quality • Drives decisions in ambiguous, fast-moving environments • Writes design docs that earn buy-in across teams Nice to have • Continued pretraining or fine-tuning pipelines (SFT, DPO, RLHF) Meet your team The Foundation Model team is part of the Generative AI foundation within Business AI at SAP. We build domain-specialized foundation models on SAP business data through continued pretraining and fine-tuning, and we build the agentic layer that brings them into SAP products. 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 131000-271600USD . 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: 457862 | Work Area: Software-Design and Development | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid

Requirements

Must-haves

We help the world run better
Foundation Model Team · Newport Beach, CA
We're building specialized foundation models and AI agents that accelerate SAP customers' data transformation journeys.
The agents you build will directly power SAP's Autonomous Enterprise, where AI runs core business processes end-to-end across finance, supply chain, HR, and procurement at global scale.
We want someone who has shipped agentic systems in production and knows where they break.
What you'll do
Architect and lead multi-agent systems: design, orchestration patterns, failure modes, memory, planning, and human-in-the-loop
Own the path from prototype to production: containerization, guardrails, cost and latency optimization, scalable serving
Define the team's evaluation strategy: offline/online harnesses, trajectory quality, tool-call accuracy, regression testing, CI/CD eval gates
Lead instrumentation and observability: tracing, span capture, automated scoring, closing the trace → eval → fix loop
Drive tool integration architecture via MCP across multiple product teams
Mentor junior and mid-level engineers through code and architecture reviews; set engineering standards
Education: BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, ML, or a related field.
Experience: 6+ years building and shipping ML systems, with 3+ years hands-on with LLMs and agents in production.
Core technical skills
Expert Python; strong fundamentals: system design, testing, modularity, async, API design

Nice-to-haves

Continued pretraining or fine-tuning pipelines (SFT, DPO, RLHF)
Meet your team
Bring out your best
We win with inclusion
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: 457862 | Work Area: Software-Design and Development | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

aici/cdmlpythonapillmaccessibility

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Effort: medium