SAP

Principal Data and Applied Science, Finance and Spend Autonomous Suite, Palo Alto

SAP$198K — $420K *
Finance & Insurance
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of experience in knowledge engineering, semantic data systems, applied AI, or data science in an enterprise context.
  • Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, or a related quantitative field.
  • Proven experience creating enterprise ontologies and semantic models; proficient in a graph query language like SPARQL or Cypher.
  • Hands-on experience with modern AI systems including RAG, embeddings, and vector databases.
  • Strong skills in Python and SQL, and familiarity with ML libraries such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
  • Track record of deploying and maintaining AI/ML solutions in production.
  • Experience with cloud environments and infrastructure like Databricks.

Responsibilities

  • Design and manage enterprise ontologies and semantic models for accurate AI understanding.
  • Build AI capabilities including RAG pipelines and vector databases for production accuracy.
  • Develop solutions leveraging generative AI and LLMs using varied enterprise data.
  • Utilize SAP's data and process context for grounding AI solutions.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally to convert business challenges into AI solutions.
  • Apply advanced ML techniques to develop and evaluate solutions with real-world datasets.
  • Support reliable AI workflows across cloud and data platforms.

Benefits

  • Join a tight-knit, innovative team dedicated to trustworthy AI development.
  • Opportunity to influence the future of AI in Finance and Spend teams.
  • Work closely with engineers, product minds, and researchers.
  • Engage in meaningful work with real-world implications.
  • Flexible work environment with potential for hybrid arrangements.
Full Job Description
The context engine that makes AI enterprise ready.

Anyone can build an AI agent. What makes SAP's agents different is accuracy grounded in the richest enterprise data and process context in the world. As a Data and Applied Scientist at SAP, you'll build the context engine grounded in SAP's Business ontology: the semantic infrastructure that transforms raw business data into the knowledge layer powering SAP's AI agents and assistants.

What you'll build

The semantic and contextual foundation of SAP's AI. While generic AI agents operate on surface-level patterns, SAP agents are accurate because they understand the real semantics of enterprise business master data, process flows, and domain relationships. You'll build and scale the layer that makes that possible.

  • Design and maintain enterprise ontologies and semantic models that give AI agents accurate, grounded understanding of SAP and connected business landscapes harmonizing data from SAP, Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, MES/IoT systems, and external providers into unified semantic layers.

  • Build AI capabilities including RAG pipelines, embeddings, vector databases, and enterprise knowledge grounding that make SAP's agents accurate and reliable in production.

  • Develop AI capabilities including generative AI and LLM-based solutions using enterprise business data, knowledge graphs, business process intelligence, and other structured and unstructured data assets.

  • Leverage SAP's deep data and process context including SAP data models, metadata structures, and business process semantics across Order-to-Cash, Procure-to-Pay, Record-to-Report, and Plan-to-Produce to ground AI solutions in real enterprise reality.

  • Work with cloud and data platforms including Databricks, SAP Datasphere, SAP HANA Cloud, AWS, Azure, and GCP to support reliable, scalable AI workflows.

  • Partner across product, engineering, business, and customer-facing teams to translate ambiguous business challenges into concrete AI solutions from concept through deployment and continuous improvement.

  • Apply machine learning, deep learning, and statistical modeling to develop and evaluate AI solutions using real-world enterprise datasets.


What you'll bring

Required Qualifications

  • 8+ years of experience in knowledge engineering, semantic data systems, applied AI, or data science in industry, research labs, or advanced academic environments.

  • Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, or a related quantitative field

  • Hands-on experience designing enterprise ontologies and semantic models; proficiency in at least one graph query language (SPARQL, Cypher, or GQL); understanding of trade-offs between RDF triple stores and property graph databases.

  • Hands-on experience with modern GenAI systems RAG, embeddings, vector databases, semantic retrieval, and enterprise knowledge grounding.


  • Strong Python and SQL skills with production-grade development practices; experience with ML libraries such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or scikit-learn.

  • Proven track record deploying and operating AI/ML solutions in production including handoff, lifecycle support, and continuous improvement.

  • Experience with big data infrastructure and cloud environments Databricks or equivalent, plus at least one major cloud (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

  • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work cross-functionally in agile environments.


Preferred Qualifications

  • Deep working knowledge of SAP data models, metadata structures, and core business processes end-to-end. (SAP knowledge is a strong accelerator)

  • Hands-on experience with the SAP data and AI platform stack SAP Datasphere, SAP HANA Cloud Knowledge Graph Engine, SAP Business Data Cloud, SAP One Domain Model, SAP Graph API, and SAP Business Accelerator Hub.

  • Deep expertise across the W3C stack (OWL, RDF/RDFS, SKOS, SHACL) and/or property graph query languages (Cypher, GQL).

  • Experience on Financial (example - accounting, close, reporting) and Spend (procurement, s2p, contracts) domain knowledge

  • Deep expertise in machine learning and deep learning, with experience developing, evaluating, and improving models on real-world datasets.

  • Experience with agentic AI, reasoning frameworks, planning, orchestration, tool use, or multi-agent architectures.

  • Experience contributing to reusable AI platforms, foundation model initiatives, or shared AI services adopted across multiple product areas.

  • Ability to design upper-level and mid-level ontologies aligned with industry standards and apply semantic interoperability frameworks across complex application landscapes.


#dlhiring

#LI-MM10

Where you belong

You'll join the Data Labs unit, a tight-knit team turning AI from a promise into something Finance and Spend teams rely on every day, at global scale. You'll work alongside curious engineers, thoughtful product minds, and applied researchers all focused on building AI that customers can trust in the highest-stakes business processes. The problems are real - money, risk, trust, and so is ownership. You'll stretch into new domains, see your models run, and help set the direction for SAP's AI in Finance and Spend. You will learn fast have an excellent opportunity to own things end to end and build foundations others will stand on.

Requisition ID: 459701 | Work Area: Software-Design and Development | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid

Requisition ID: 459701

Posted Date: Aug 27, 2026

Work Area: Software-Design and Development

Career Status: Professional

Employment Type: Regular Full Time

Expected Travel: 0 - 10%

Location:

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