Head of AI Center of Excellence

Position Summary

The Head of AI Center of Excellence will lead a small, high‑impact team of forward‑deployed builders who work directly on real operational and customer problems, turning AI potential into measurable value for the SAP and managed services business.

Responsibilities

• Hire, develop, and lead a team of technical AI builders.
• Improve internal managed services performance through AI.
• Create a high‑performance culture focused on shipping working solutions.
• Ensure the team works directly with business and technical stakeholders.
• Prioritize use‑cases based on value, feasibility, scalability, and strategic relevance.
• Establish clear entry and exit criteria for CoE involvement.
• Identify the business problem; validate whether AI is the right mechanism.
• Define target outcome and KPIs.
• Build or orchestrate a working MVP.
• Test with real users, real data and constraints, measure impact.
• Decide whether to stop, scale, hand over, or productize.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 7–10 years of hands‑on experience in full‑stack, backend, platform, integration, or automation engineering, using TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, or similar modern programming languages.
• Strong understanding of applied AI, generative AI, agentic AI, and automation.
• Experience building or leading teams that deliver working software or AI solutions.
• Ability to architect AI systems and challenge technical decisions.
• Understanding of enterprise IT, application management, or managed services.
• Strong appreciation of SAP environments and operational realities of SAP services.
• Experience with ticketing, service management, and operational data.
• Experience moving ideas from discovery to MVP to production handover.
• Strong stakeholder management across business, delivery, architecture, and operations.
• Ability to prioritize based on measurable value rather than hype.
• Comfort working within enterprise constraints, standards, and platform decisions.
• Strong communication skills, fluent English; German is a plus.