About this role
<p style="margin:0.0in;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif"><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black">We help the world run better</span></strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black"><br>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. </span></p><div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><strong>What you'll build</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><strong> </strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">At SAP Business AI, we are exploring the next frontier of AI on structured business data like graphs, tables and more. Foundation Models on structured data, like SAP-RPT-1, have ushered in the GenAI era for business relevant scenarios. Now, we are pushing further. We want to enable companies across all industries to collaboratively train foundation models and build knowledge graphs.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">As Knowledge Graph Tech Lead (f/m/d), you will own the technical vision and roadmap for SAP’s Industry Knowledge Graph (IKG) – a unified, semantically rich representation of business entities, processes, and relationships across SAP applications and customer industries. You provide technical leadership for a team of knowledge engineers, data engineers, and AI scientists, leading through expertise, mentorship, and influence rather than direct people-management responsibility, enabling the modeling of industry data into a production-grade RDF Knowledge Graph for open-source delivery, shaping the IKG into a platform that other workstreams (Multi-Modal Industry Foundation Models and Data Platform) and SAP product teams build on, and pushing the frontier of how Knowledge Graphs and Large Language Models combine to enable the creation of new knowledge at scale.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">You move easily between deep technical work – ontologies, SHACL shapes, SPARQL, KG construction pipelines – and shaping the broader IKG architecture and roadmap that several teams across the initiative will execute against.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">This is the ideal role for a highly technically focused, ambitious individual with exceptional depth in Knowledge Graphs and a proven track record of shaping and leading large-scale engineering and research efforts. This is a rare opportunity to define the data backbone for one of the very few foundation-model programs of European origin and help shape the future of AI on enterprise data.</span></div> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><strong>The Role</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><strong> </strong></span></div> <ul> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Define and own the architectural and research roadmap for the Industry Knowledge Graph – ontology design, SHACL constraints, KG construction at scale, and the path from prototypes to production and delivery as open-source project.</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Provide technical and thought leadership to a multidisciplinary team of knowledge engineers, data engineers, and AI scientists; set the technical bar, drive hypotheses and experiments, and steer execution from concept through production (without direct people-management responsibility)</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Redefine what end-to-end KG construction means in the age of Agentic AI – from initial modeling to mapping diverse sources all the way to researching joint representations of latent and explicit knowledge.</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Shape the IKG to become part of the OP4I platform with clear interfaces that the MMIFM and SAP product teams build on, with documentation, blueprints and onboarding for downstream consumers</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Push the frontier of Knowledge Graph and Foundation Model integration through agent grounding, agentic knowledge engineering, and the use of the IKG to train better foundation models, partnering with the MMIFM team and product stakeholders.</span></li> </ul> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><strong> </strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><strong>What you bring</strong></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><strong> </strong></span></div> <ul> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">PhD or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Representation, or related disciplines</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Typically 12+ years of relevant industry and/or research experience in Knowledge Graphs, data engineering, AI, or related fields, including experience driving complex initiatives from concept to production</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">A strong vision of how KG construction should be done in the age of Agentic AI, demonstrated e.g. by recent academic publications in top tier conferences</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Deep, hands-on expertise in the RDF Knowledge Graph stack (RDF, RDFS, OWL, SHACL, SPARQL) with a track record of taking enterprise Knowledge Graphs from concept to production at scale</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Demonstrated experience leading the technical direction of a KG / data engineering effort – ontology design, KG construction pipelines, and integrating the graph into a platform that other teams build on</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Hands-on experience integrating Knowledge Graphs with LLMs – e.g. graph RAG, KG embeddings, KG-grounded agents, hallucination mitigation</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Knowledge of SAP business data and applications – data models, business objects, extraction interfaces – is a strong plus; broader familiarity with enterprise data (ERP, CRM) is welcome</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Familiarity with the triple-store ecosystem (commercial and open-source: GraphDB, Stardog, Virtuoso, Apache Jena, Blazegraph, Neptune, etc.), SPARQL query optimization, and KG operations at scale is a plus</span></li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Proven technical leadership and outstanding communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences</span></div> </li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">You can defend an ontology decision in a deep technical review just as effectively as you can explain the value of a Knowledge Graph to business stakeholders and executives</span></div> </li> <li style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">Excellent written and verbal English communication skills at business level are required; additional languages are a plus</span></div> </li> </ul> <div> </div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black"><strong>Where you belong</strong></span></div> <div><br><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">SAP's AI organization is dedicated to seamlessly infusing AI into all enterprise applications, enabling customers, partners, and developers to enhance business processes and generate remarkable business value. Join our international AI team where innovation thrives, opportunities for personal development abound, and exceptional colleagues collaborate globally.</span></div> <div><br><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt;color:black">#SAPBusinessAICareers</span></div> <div> </div><p style="margin-top:8.0px"><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10.0pt"></span><strong style="font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;font-size:12.0pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black">Bring out your best</span></strong></p> <p style="margin:0.0in;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black">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. <br><br><strong>We win with inclusion</strong><br>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.<br><br>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: [email protected].<br><br>For SAP employees: Only permanent roles are eligible for the </span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif"><a href="https://one.int.sap/me@sap/jobs_and_hiring/employee_referral/region/0000/lang/en">SAP Employee Referral Program</a><span style="color:black">, according to the eligibility rules set in the SAP Referral Policy. Specific conditions may apply for roles in Vocational Training.<br><br></span></span></p> <p style="margin:0.0in;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif"><strong><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black">AI Usage in the Recruitment Process</span></strong></p> <p style="margin:0.0in;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black">For information on the responsible use of AI in our recruitment process, please refer to our </span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif"><a href="https://jobs.sap.com/content/Ethical_usage_of_AI_in_the_recruiting_process/?locale=en_US">Guidelines for Ethical Usage of AI in the Recruiting Process</a></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black">. </span></p> <p style="margin:0.0in;font-size:12.0pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black">Please note that any violation of these guidelines may result in disqualification from the hiring process.</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial, sans-serif;color:black"><br><br>Requisition ID: 455078 | Work Area: Software-Design and Development | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: München, Berlin, Potsdam | #LI-Hybrid<br></span></p>