SAP
SAP2 open roles

Forward Deployed Senior AI Engineer

New York, NYHybridSeniorFull-time

Posted 2 days ago

The role in short

Design, develop, and operate production-grade AI-native enterprise applications and agents while embedded within customer delivery teams.

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.

Location: this is a hybrid position based from our New York City office located in the Hudson Yards.

What you'll build

In this role, you contribute to the design, development, and operation of AI-native enterprise applications within fast-moving, customer-embedded delivery teams.

You bring solid engineering fundamentals and a growing command of AI and machine learning techniques, applying them to solve real-world business problems under the guidance of Forward Deployed Architects and Managers.

This is a role for someone who is hungry to learn, eager to contribute, and excited by the challenge of building production-grade solutions that make a tangible difference for enterprise customers.

In this role, you will:

  • Contribute to the development of production-grade, cloud-native applications integrating AI capabilities such as large language models, RAG pipelines, and agent-based components.
  • Work within customer projects and cross-functional delivery teams, learning to understand business processes, technical landscapes, and customer needs.
  • Implement features, components, and integrations under the guidance of architects, maintaining code quality and adherence to engineering standards.
  • Support prototyping, testing, and iteration of AI solutions in customer environments, adapting to feedback and evolving requirements.
  • Participate in code reviews, technical discussions, and design sessions, actively developing your engineering skills and knowledge.
  • Assist with monitoring, troubleshooting, and improving deployed solutions to ensure reliability and operational stability.
  • Contribute to documentation, reusable components, and engineering best practices to support team productivity and knowledge sharing.
  • Demonstrate a proactive learning mindset — staying current with AI/ML developments and applying new techniques and tools to improve solution quality.

What you bring:

  • 8+ years of hands-on experience in software and application engineering for cloud-native, enterprise, and SaaS environments, with strong knowledge of architectural principles such as scalability, security, and reliability.
  • Solid foundational skills in software engineering, with proficiency in Python and hands-on experience in at least one cloud-native development environment.
  • Growing understanding of AI and ML concepts, including familiarity with large language models, machine learning frameworks (e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn), and API-based AI services.
  • Exposure to data pipelines, MLOps concepts, or AI/ML model integration in application contexts.
  • Ability to work collaboratively within a team, follow engineering standards, and take ownership of assigned tasks with a strong sense of accountability.
  • Curiosity, adaptability, and a growth mindset — you actively seek feedback, learn from experience, and are motivated to grow quickly in a high-pace environment.
  • Strong understanding of cloud platforms (e.g. AWS, Azure, GCP) and familiarity with tools such as Git, Docker, and CI/CD pipelines.
  • Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively within cross-functional teams and customer-facing settings.
  • An interest in or early exposure to SAP AI technologies such as SAP AI Core or SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is a plus.
  • Experience in developing software with customers is a big plus.

Where you belong:

You will be part of a growing AI and industry expert team serving customers across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. We invest in the growth of our people at every level — and this role is built for someone who wants to accelerate fast. You will be surrounded by experienced engineers and AI practitioners who are committed to helping you develop. You will thrive here if you are curious, hardworking, and motivated by the opportunity to build real AI solutions for real enterprise customers — from day one.

#SAPIndustryAICareers

#LI-RS11

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.

Prep for this interview

5 questions likely to come up at SAP, each matched to a line in this posting.

  1. 1Cloud, deployment and security
    They wrote: “Strong understanding of cloud platforms (e.g. AWS, Azure, GCP) and familiarity with tools such as Git, Docker, and CI/CD pipelines.”

    How would you debug a deployment that works in staging but fails at the customer's site?

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Customer environments differ in ways you can't see. This tests method under pressure.

    1. Compare versions, config and environment variables
    2. Check network rules, proxies and certificates (common in enterprise)
    3. Look at resource limits and permissions
    4. Add the missing check to your install steps afterwards

    Tip: List the usual suspects and how you'd check each without full access.

  2. 2Coding
    They wrote: “Solid foundational skills in software engineering, with proficiency in Python and hands-on experience in at least one cloud-native development environment.”

    Here's a CSV export from a customer. Write a script that cleans it and loads it into our API.

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Very close to real FDE work. They watch how you handle bad rows and failures.

    1. Read with a proper CSV parser; check the header first
    2. Validate each row and collect errors, not crash on the first one
    3. Send in batches with retries and a clear report at the end
    4. Write one or two quick tests for the parsing

    Tip: Talk through edge cases out loud: encodings, missing fields, duplicates, rate limits.

  3. 3Discovery and scoping
    They wrote: “You bring solid engineering fundamentals and a growing command of AI and machine learning techniques, applying them to solve real-world business problems under the guidance of Forward Deployed Architects and Managers.”

    A customer says “we want AI in our claims process.” What do you ask in the first meeting?

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Most FDE work starts this vague. They want to hear you find the real problem before you pick a tool.

    1. Map the current process: who touches a claim, in what order, with which systems
    2. Find the slowest or most error-prone step and ask what it costs them
    3. Agree on one measurable goal (for example time per claim, or error rate)
    4. Ask what data you can access, and who signs off on security

    Tip: Ask about the work, not the technology. Who does it today, how long it takes, what a mistake costs, and how they'd know it got better.

  4. 4Integrations and APIs
    They wrote: “Implement features, components, and integrations under the guidance of architects, maintaining code quality and adherence to engineering standards.”

    Walk me through connecting our product to a customer's internal system that has no documentation.

    How to answer

    Why they ask: This happens weekly in the job. They want a calm, step-by-step method.

    1. Find who owns the system and get read access to a test environment
    2. Watch real traffic or logs to learn the data shapes
    3. Build a thin adapter with logging around every call
    4. Agree on how failures get reported, and who fixes what

    Tip: Talk about finding the owner of the system first. The code is the easy part.

  5. 5Data and SQL
    They wrote: “Exposure to data pipelines, MLOps concepts, or AI/ML model integration in application contexts.”

    How would you design a daily pipeline that feeds customer data into our product?

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Tests basic data engineering: scheduling, failures, re-runs and monitoring.

    1. Extract with timestamps or change tracking, not full dumps, when possible
    2. Transform in steps you can re-run without creating duplicates
    3. Validate row counts and key fields before loading
    4. Alert a person on failure, with enough detail to fix it

    Tip: Make re-running safe (same input, same result) and say how you'd know it failed.

Not the one? Get the next one by email

New roles land here every day. Pick what you want to hear about.

FDE Info

Want the job, not just the posting? Learn how FDEs work.

FDE Info is our free weekly newsletter for forward deployed engineers: tools, field notes from real deployments, and how FDE teams hire and pay.

Free. One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click.

More at SAP

Similar roles at other companies

SAP

Hybrid

Apply