Technical Application Owners

Functieomschrijving Technical Application Owners (SAP HR and Success Factors Specialists) (22092) At the European Patent Office (EPO) we are undertaking a major transformation aimed at building a DevOps practice, making agile principles a reality in our daily work, adopting green technologies and utilising artificial intelligence. Our mission is to support innovation, competitiveness and economic growth across Europe. We pride ourselves on taking innovation seriously and are fully committed to achieving our digital transformation. The European Patent Office's Strategic Plan 2028 emphasises its commitment to sustainability, focusing on engaging and empowering its workforce through innovative HR practices. This strategy aims to attract and develop talent, support mobility and flexibility, provide engaging workspaces and ensure the EPO remains a leading institution in the intellectual property landscape. Directorate Corporate IT supports the EPO by providing corporate-wide services, specialised knowledge, best practices and tools. As part of the Business Information Technology (BIT) area and in line with the EPO's strategy, the directorate is responsible for rolling out and maintaining standard market solutions delivered with off-the-shelf functionality and best practices. The directorate seeks synergies between solutions to simplify the digital workflows across different organisational areas while at the same time modernising the IT landscape to prevent obsolescence and improve sustainability. The HR Tech Centre of Excellence department is part of Directorate Corporate IT. The mission of the HR Tech Centre of Excellence team is to support the simplification and modernisation of HR. The main area of focus is the SAP products portfolio for HR business processes. The EPO model for human capital management (HCM) falls into the SAP classification known as Talent Hybrid. Core HR areas (personnel administration, organisational management, time management and payroll) are supported by SAP ERP (expected to be in S/4 HANA HCM by H2 2025) and Fiori Launchpad, while areas linked to talent acquisition, talent management, talent development and learning are supported by SuccessFactors. We are looking for highly creative IT professionals with a broad range of expertise in SAP HR and SuccessFactors. We need highly motivated senior experts who can work independently and bring state-of-the-art knowledge in the respective domains. The role requires extensive and diverse consulting experience built through customer-facing implementations, migrations and rollouts and a team-focused approach. Commitment to sharing knowledge and experience within the team, learning new technologies and contributing to our continuous transformation and development are key to this role. In anticipation of exciting future opportunities in different fields of IT in our organisation, we are launching a talent pool for Technical Application Owners (SAP HR and Success Factors Specialists). With us you will • be responsible for the lifecycle of a service or application in terms of features, quality, economic aspects and support • identify requirements, conceptualise solutions and develop frameworks for the implementation of systems • define the application architecture, evaluate vendor software and provide architectural consulting expertise and assistance • interpret business issues and recommend solutions while ensuring uniform and effective application of EPO regulations • check and ensure the operational quality and performance of the applications under your responsibility • play a key role in driving the organisation through its digital transformation • ensure the successful introduction of new BIT solutions across the business units and with stakeholders • be responsible for business processes linked to HR SAP solutions Apply if you have • several years of professional experience in the areas of consulting, project management, application management, business change management and IT service management combined with a minimum of five years' experience in SAP HR- or SuccessFactors-related areas as an implementation consultant • in-depth knowledge of and professional work experience in SAP HR solutions, implementations and extensions (SAP HR and SuccessFactors) along with very good knowledge of business processes • comprehensive knowledge of and professional work experience in technical developments for SAP HR solutions (SAP HR and SuccessFactors); technical domains include UI5/Fiori Developer, OData services, CDS Views, Fiori configuration, HCM workflows and BTP Integration suite development and standard iflow configurations as well as AI and chatbot services • in-depth understanding of and proven ability to analyse, design and optimise HR processes supported by strong functional expertise and business analysis skills to align technology solutions with organisational goals • a focus on continuous improvement and the ability to think analytically and conceptually beyond the existing processes, combined with a hands-on mentality and a proactive attitude to achieve results • certification in the field of SAP HR, SuccessFactors or SAP Technical & Development areas would be of advantage • strong expertise in payroll and time management (would be of advantage) • business analysis and process-oriented certification (would be of advantage) • knowledge of agile methodologies and cloud technologies (would be of advantage) • ability to work in a project environment and capacity to network, establish and sustain partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders and subject-matter experts • strong communication skills and the ability to prepare clear and concise documentation for management decision-making • ability to work independently and as part of a team Our minimum requirements for this post • Diploma of completed studies at master's level or – in exceptional cases – equivalent professional experience • Generally, an excellent knowledge (at least C1) of one official language (English, French and German) and ability to understand the other two; alternatively, excellent knowledge (at least C1) of at least one official language (in such cases, the willingness to learn the missing language(s) and to reach level B2 within a set time frame would be required) • Citizenship of one of the member states of the European Patent Organisation Process Candidates are kindly asked to upload an updated CV and outline their motivation in the designated application field (character limit 4000). If so wished, the motivation letter can also be uploaded as a Word or pdf attachment under "Application document" in SuccessFactors. In this case, please indicate in the designated field "Please refer to attached motivation letter". The successful candidate will be selected on the basis of qualifications, competencies, professional experience and language knowledge, supplemented as appropriate by interviews, tests and/or a personality questionnaire. A reserve list may be constituted, should more candidates than required at this time be considered suitable following the selection procedure. Such reserve lists are valid for 18 months and reserve list candidates may be contacted, should a vacancy with substantially the same profile arise during that period. More information on how we recruit can be found on our EPO jobs and careers site. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Key information Job group: 4 Grade: G7 to G10 (net (basic) monthly salary* for this vacancy: EUR 6 172 to 9 901 depending on experience and location) Duration of appointment: Five years, with the possibility of extension Career path: Technical Location: Office-wide Application deadline: 11 March 2025 Interviews planned for: Second half of March 2025 - first half of April 2025 * after deduction of EPO-internal tax and before deduction of staff contributions to the social security and pension schemes.