Forward Deployed Engineering Manager

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. In this role, you lead and grow a team of senior engineers, data scientists, and AI practitioners embedded directly within SAP's most strategic customer environments. As a Director-level people manager, you are accountable for the performance, development, and wellbeing of your team — while also owning the delivery outcomes, technical quality, and customer impact of forward-deployed engagements at scale. You operate at the intersection of people leadership, technical strategy, and customer excellence. Lead, coach, and develop a team of senior engineers and AI practitioners, fostering a high-performance culture grounded in accountability, collaboration, and continuous growth. Own team performance, including goal setting, feedback cycles, career development, and talent planning. Drive delivery excellence across multiple forward-deployed customer engagements, ensuring outcomes align with agreed success. Set technical direction and architectural guardrails for the team, in partnership with Chief Experts and technical leads. Act as a senior escalation point for delivery risks, team challenges, and customer concerns. Build strong relationships with senior customer stakeholders and SAP leadership. Attract, hire, and onboard top engineering talent across AI, data, and software engineering disciplines. Champion engineering best practices, responsible AI principles, and a culture of learning and innovation. Proven experience leading and managing senior engineering teams, with a track record of building high-performing, inclusive, and motivated engineering organizations. Strong technical background in AI, machine learning, data engineering, or software engineering. Deep understanding of forward-deployed or customer-embedded delivery models, and experience managing complex, high-stakes customer engagements. Proven ability to work in an Agentic AI context. Familiarity with SAP AI technologies and enterprise AI deployment realities is a strong advantage.