Senior Researcher in Embedded Research for AI in Finance (f/m/d)

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 build:

The Academic Partnerships organization at SAP partners with other SAP teams to provide the best services to foster strategic research collaborations between SAP and academia. The PhD Graduate Team is responsible for building the bridge between cutting-edge research and SAP functional teams. Our mission is to facilitate the application of research across SAP and contribute to SAP research strategy with interdisciplinary research activities.

Working together with the Strategy & Operations Team for SAP Finance, focusing on AI adoption and transformation in SAP’s finance processes and corporate decision-making, you will bring the research perspectives and insights from finance, machine learning, and AI adoption research to our product innovation strategy, validating the impact of AI technologies, and bridging the gap between industry and academia.

The Role:

In your daily work you will work on AI use case ideation, development, and adoption for Finance transformation challenges, collaborating with industry experts, researchers, and business stakeholders. You will combine hands-on data science work with close collaboration with GFA business teams to translate innovation and research findings into actionable AI use cases. Drawing on your background in Finance research (incl. asset pricing, shareholder behavior, AI adoption, or similar), you will help validate and scale AI capabilities across Finance workstreams, bridge academic insights and enterprise requirements, and contribute to SAP's research strategy in quantitative Finance:

The position involves working within a highly motivated team of experts, driving innovation in a collaborative research environment, with close collaboration across lines of business and strong potential to influence future product directions and innovation at scale.

• Apply machine learning and quantitative research methods to Finance AI use cases within SAP's AI innovation programs in GFA

• Prototype AI models and agents for Finance processes, drawing on experience with risk quantification, and shareholder behavior analysis

• Translate empirical research findings into concrete, scalable Finance innovation strategies

• Collaborate with GFA Operations, business stakeholders, and technology teams to define requirements, validate AI capabilities, and support go-live readiness

• Support knowledge transfer and capability building within Finance teams, leveraging experience teaching and supervising researchers in quantitative methods

• Drive cross-functional collaboration across Product, IT, Finance, and leadership teams to align AI initiatives with business priorities and ensure end-to-end delivery from research insight to production

• Shape a strategic vision for AI in Finance by identifying high-impact application areas and building a roadmap for their adoption across the enterprise

• Facilitate structured stakeholder workshops and review sessions to gather Finance requirements, validate AI outputs, and build consensus on implementation roadmaps

• Bridge the gap between academic findings and industry

• Participate in interdisciplinary research activities with the PhD graduate team, supporting SAP’s research strategy

• Be an active part of research mentoring programs and the research community at SAP

• Collaborate with various internal and external stakeholders

What you bring:

• Advanced university degree (PhD relevant to industrial context preferred, dissertation focused on AI applications preferred) in finance, management, information systems, technology management, quantitative economics, or similar

• 2+ years of work experience in industry-relevant research, additional experiences in consulting at the intersection of Finance and ML, budget responsibility preferred

• Track record of applied Finance research (publications preferred) at the intersection of industry and academia, with conference presentations and industry exposure in investment management and M&A, as well as in LLM and ML applications across Finance areas

• Academic track record in related fields of research

• Proven experience building and deploying ML models in a Finance context — including risk monitoring tools, and solid understanding of AI adoption concepts

• Strong programming skills in Python for financial data analysis, including experience with large datasets, web scraping, model training. Packages incl. pytorch, sklearn, numpy, pandas; tools like Docker, Github, Linux, VSCode

• Hands-on experience prototyping agentic AI solutions and leveraging LLMs in research or applied projects is a plus; familiarity with prompt engineering, RAG, or tool-augmented AI workflows

• Ability to work on challenging research topics with a structured, scientific approach

• Academic track record in related fields of research

• Sound understanding of SAP’s strategy

• Strong hands-on mindset and willingness to translate promising research direction into product functionality

• Strong collaboration skills and a team-oriented mindset

• Experience working in enterprise-relevant research projects in Finance

• Good written and verbal communication skills in English

Where you belong:

The Academic Partnership organization at SAP is the bridge connecting SAP and academia. We build collaborative, structured partnerships with academic institutions and encompass a wide range of activities and programs in regards of academic teaching, academic community management, and PhD talent management.

The PhD Graduate Team stands for embedding cutting-edge research into functional teams across SAP, bringing together interdisciplinary PhD talent in a research-like environment.

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.

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.

Requisition ID: 456599 | Work Area: Software-Research | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Professional | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid

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