Head of Payroll

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

As Product Management Lead of SAP Payroll & Benefits Solutions (m/f/d), you will take full ownership of the strategic advancement and scalable growth of our SAP Payroll & Benefits product portfolio. In this pivotal role, you will be responsible for driving innovation through an AI-first solution approach, user-centric design, and business acceleration within the SAP SuccessFactors HCM landscape.

You will shape the future of Payroll and Benefits by combining deep domain expertise with AI-enhanced automation, predictive capabilities, and intelligent user experiences — making Payroll & Benefits not only accurate and compliant but also more proactive, efficient, and human-centric. You will lead a senior team of product managers in building cloud-native solutions that scale across global markets.

Your Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Drive the strategic development and modernisation of SAP Payroll offerings in line with SAP's HCM and cloud platform vision
• Expand the solution portfolio to include AI-powered components that enhance payroll validation, compliance checks, and decision-making
• Define the payroll and benefits roadmap to align with evolving business needs, market trends, including trends such as BPO models, and innovations such as intelligent automation and conversational UX
• Strengthen SAP's leadership position in the payroll market by ensuring business growth along with market growth

Solution Design & Innovation

• Design next-generation payroll, benefits and adjacent solutions that are cloud-delivered, modular, and scalable, built for global extensibility
• Integrate AI/ML-based capabilities
• Build solutions that serve both expert users (e.g. administrators) and business-facing users (e.g. managers, employees), with intuitive interfaces and explainable intelligence

Product Delivery & Excellence

• Manage full lifecycle of Payroll and Benefits innovations — from concept to launch — ensuring speed, quality, and continuous improvement
• Ensure the ability to meet compliance needs with global and local regulatory standards while offering extensibility for customer-specific needs
• Lead the development of pre-configured content, validation templates, and diagnostic tools that leverage AI for proactive issue resolution

Leadership & Collaboration

• Guide a high-performing team of product managers, fostering innovation and ownership
• Collaborate closely with AI platform teams, UX, partner ecosystems, and customer co-innovation programs
• Partner with sales and go-to-market teams to drive business growth and market expansion, adoption and growth of AI-enhanced Payroll and Benefits solutions

What you bring

• Senior-level experience in product management, solution strategy and/ or development in Payroll, HCM, or enterprise SaaS
• Deep domain knowledge of SAP Payroll (on-premise and/or cloud) or other enterprise-grade payroll platforms, including expertise in BPO markets and customer needs
• Familiarity with AI and automation use cases in the payroll or finance domain (e.g. ML, rules engines, predictive diagnostics)
• Strong understanding of cloud architecture, user-centric product design, and scalable enterprise software delivery
• Strategic mindset with hands-on drive and customer empathy
• Excellent communication skills in English (German is a plus)

What we offer

• A strategic leadership role with significant autonomy and direct impact on SAP HCM business performance
• Opportunity to define the AI roadmap for Payroll, setting new standards in automation and insight
• Collaboration with one of the most experienced teams in SAP HCM and Enterprise Payroll
• Competitive compensation, hybrid working model, and an innovation-driven culture in Walldorf

Redefining Payroll & Benefits – Intelligent. Scalable. Human.

Join us in shaping a new generation of Payroll—powered by AI, trusted by users, and built to scale across the world.

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:

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: | Work Area: Software-Design and Development | Expected Travel: 0 - 10% | Career Status: Management | Employment Type: Regular Full Time | Additional Locations: #LI-Hybrid