Staff/Principal AI Scientist (f/m/d) for Mixture-of-Architecture Foundation Models

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

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. As Staff/Principal AI Scientist (f/m/d), you will play a leading role in defining, prototyping and iterating a composable, multi-modal architecture for foundation models spanning across structured (tables, time series, graphs, ...) and unstructured data (text, code, images, …). You stay up to date with the most recent research in the highly dynamic realm of foundation models and you use these insights to work out ideas for technical concepts, model architectures and inform backlogs and research roadmaps of the model R&D teams. You can easily switch between deep hands-on work, training and evaluating foundation models, and conceptual work, defining technical visions and roadmaps for scaled execution by multiple R&D teams. This is the ideal role for a highly focused, ambitious individual with both, a strong technical and coordinating abilities to grow in a dynamic, fast-paced environment, and your chance to become a key contributor to one of the very few leading foundation models of European origin.

The Role

• Define research roadmap for mixture-of-architecture foundation models to enable training across multiple modalities of business data, such as tables, time series, graphs, text and others
• Define processes, methods, hypotheses, and experiments with the ambition to lead the project together with a team of AI Scientists
• Balance long-term research roadmap with and hands-on coding, experimentation, and technical improvements to bootstrap the development
• Guide the development of enablement materials and blueprints for training mixture-of-architecture models on different, potentially federated data sources
• Collaborate cross-functionally to inform value proposition and partnering ambitions

What you bring

• PhD or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or other relevant disciplines
• Candidate must have a strong background in Foundation Models and/or World Models, with a substantial publication record, including recent top-tier conference papers, or equivalent experience delivering models in an applied research environment.
• Experience with foundation models for large structured data or multimodal foundation models is a strong plus.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience in researching, prototyping, and advancing machine learning models
• Proficiency in Python, and experience with ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or similar. Optionally, hands-on experience with Graph ML frameworks
• Experience with Machine Learning and Knowledge Modeling on structured data such as in the ERP or CRM domain is a plus
• Proven history of exemplary leadership and strategic mindset, complemented by superior organizational abilities
• Strong communication and documentation skills for technical and non-technical audiences – you can explain technical model architecture in detail just as well as you can explain the why and the benefits for users and business stakeholders

Meet your team

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.