AI-Native Development Lead - SAP ABAP Cloud Modernization PoC

Role Overview

About the project

SAP Fioneer is exploring an AI-native development approach to accelerate the modernization of an existing SAP FS-CD / ABAP solution into a modern ABAP Cloud architecture using RAP and Clean Core principles.

This is a focused proof of concept, not a full production rebuild. The goal is to validate whether AI agents and LLM-driven development workflows can serve as the primary implementation engine for transforming one representative end-to-end process from the existing legacy environment into a modern public cloud-ready architecture.

The engagement is expected to run for approximately 5-6 weeks, with potential for a longer-term collaboration if the PoC is successful.

About the role

We are looking for a hands-on AI-native development lead to own and drive the PoC.

The ideal consultant has strong experience using LLMs / AI agents to build software, structure context across complex codebases and documentation, design AI-driven development workflows, and integrate AI tooling into real development environments.

This is not a traditional ABAP developer role, and it is not a pure advisory / architecture role. The consultant should be comfortable shaping an exploratory approach, setting up the workflow, working directly with internal developers and SAP experts, validating AI-generated outputs, and documenting learnings.

SAP Fioneer has strong internal SAP / ABAP / product expertise available. The external lead does not need to be a deep FS-CD domain expert, but should have enough familiarity with SAP, ABAP, ABAP Cloud, RAP, or related SAP development environments to operate effectively with the internal team.

Responsibilities

• Own the setup, execution, iteration, and synthesis of the AI-native development PoC.
• Define a practical AI-driven development workflow for transforming one representative end-to-end SAP FS-CD / ABAP process.
• Structure code, documentation, architecture knowledge, and business rules so AI agents can use the right context effectively.
• Set up or guide the setup of AI-agent development workflows using tools such as Claude Code or comparable AI coding agents.
• Integrate AI tooling with repositories, IDEs, execution environments, and SAP development tooling where needed.
• Work closely with SAP Fioneer's internal developers, product owner, architect, and AI expert.
• Guide internal stakeholders on how to use AI-native workflows effectively while keeping humans in the validation loop.
• Validate AI-generated outputs through tests, critical review, and collaboration with SAP domain experts.
• Identify bottlenecks across context, tooling, workflow, integration, or SAP-specific constraints.
• Document the AI-driven development workflow, context setup, learnings, constraints, and productivity observations.
• Help SAP Fioneer determine whether the approach can scale beyond the initial PoC.

Required experience

• Hands-on experience using LLMs / AI agents as a meaningful part of the software development process.
• Experience designing or running AI-driven / agentic development workflows, not just using AI as a basic coding assistant.
• Strong context engineering experience across complex systems, codebases, documentation, architecture, and business rules.
• Experience connecting AI tools to real development environments, repositories, IDEs, APIs, or execution workflows.
• Familiarity with MCP-style integrations, agentic tool use, or system/tool connectivity for AI-assisted development.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals, including testing, validation, modular design, and code review.
• Experience working with or modernizing large legacy enterprise systems.
• Familiarity with SAP development environments, ABAP, ABAP Cloud, RAP, Clean Core, ADT / Eclipse, VS Code, or related SAP tooling.
• Ability to operate in ambiguous, exploratory PoC environments without a predefined implementation concept or detailed backlog.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills with technical stakeholders and domain experts.
• Pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset with a bias toward measurable outcomes over perfection.

Nice-to-have experience

• Prior SAP FS-CD experience.
• Experience with financial services, insurance, collections / disbursements, payments, or finance-related systems.
• Hands-on experience with SAP BTP, Fiori, UI5, or SAP public cloud modernization.
• Experience with Claude Code specifically.
• Experience comparing productivity between AI-native and traditional development approaches.
• Prior experience leading short, high-ambiguity PoCs or technical experiments.

What we are not looking for

• Pure ABAP developers without meaningful AI-native development experience.
• Prompt engineers without strong software engineering or systems integration depth.
• Architects or advisors who are not comfortable being hands-on.
• AI generalists who have not built real software or workflows using AI agents.
• Perfection-driven engineers who are focused on final production architecture rather than rapid PoC learning and validation.

Expected PoC outputs

• By the end of the engagement, SAP Fioneer expects to have:
• A working end-to-end use case implemented with AI-native development support.
• A documented AI-driven development workflow.
• A clear description of the context setup, including what worked and what did not.
• A view on productivity compared with a more traditional development approach.
• Identified bottlenecks, constraints, and recommendations for scaling the approach further.