Solution Architect-SuccessFactors (m/w/d)

A career in IBM Consulting is rooted by long-term relationships and close collaboration with clients across the globe.

You'll work with visionaries across multiple industries to improve the hybrid cloud and AI journey for the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Your ability to accelerate impact and make meaningful change for your clients is enabled by our strategic partner ecosystem and our robust technology platforms across the IBM portfolio; including Software and Red Hat.

Curiosity and a constant quest for knowledge serve as the foundation to success in IBM Consulting. In your role, you'll be encouraged to challenge the norm, investigate ideas outside of your role, and come up with creative solutions resulting in ground breaking impact for a wide network of clients. Our culture of evolution and empathy centers on long-term career growth and development opportunities in an environment that embraces your unique skills and experience.

As a SAP SuccessFactors Consultant you will serve as a client-facing practitioner who sells, leads and implements expert services utilizing the breadth of IBM's offerings and technologies. A successful Consultant is regarded by clients as a trusted business advisor who collaborates to provide innovative solutions used to solve the most challenging business problems.

In this role, you'll work in one of our IBM Consulting Client Innovation Centers (Delivery Centers), where we deliver deep technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients around the world. Our delivery centers offer our clients locally based skills and technical expertise to drive innovation and adoption of new technology.

The SAP SuccessFactors Solution Architect is responsible for designing, governing, and overseeing the end-to-end architecture for SAP SuccessFactors implementations and integrations. This senior role ensures strategic alignment of HR technology solutions with business objectives, maximizes value from the SAP SuccessFactors suite, and leads the technical vision for complex programs across multiple modules.

The role requires deep functional and technical expertise, strong stakeholder engagement skills, and the ability to translate business requirements into scalable, compliant, and sustainable solutions.

You will work developing solutions that excel at user experience, style, performance, reliability and scalability to reduce costs and improve profit and shareholder value.

Your primary responsibilities include:

• Solution Architecture & Design
  1. Lead the design and governance of SAP SuccessFactors solutions across modules such as Employee Central, Recruiting, Onboarding, Performance & Goals, Learning, Compensation, and Succession.
  2. Define the architectural blueprint and integration strategy for SuccessFactors within the broader HR technology landscape.
  3. Ensure solutions are scalable, maintainable, and aligned with SAP best practices and organizational standards.
  4. Conduct impact analysis and assess technical feasibility for new business requirements.
  5. Estimate efforts for SAP SuccessFactors implementations based on client specified requirements.
     
     
• Strategic Alignment
  1. Partner with HR leadership, IT, and business stakeholders to translate strategic objectives into system capabilities.
  2. Provide thought leadership on leveraging SuccessFactors innovations to drive HR transformation.
  3. Align solution designs with enterprise architecture principles and digital roadmap.
     
     
• Governance & Standards
  1. Establish and maintain design guidelines, configuration standards, and documentation for SuccessFactors implementations.
  2. Ensure compliance with data privacy, security, and regulatory requirements (e.g., GDPR).
  3. Oversee change control processes and manage design authority for the solution.
     
     
• Delivery Oversight
  1. Lead technical workstreams in large-scale SAP SuccessFactors projects.
  2. Provide guidance to implementation partners and internal configuration teams.
  3. Review and approve functional and technical specifications before build.
  4. Proactive risk management and issue resolution, specifically exploring and discovering risks, resolving issues that affect release scope, schedule and quality, and create potential solutions.
     
     
• Integration & Data Management
  1. Define integration patterns and oversee integration design between SuccessFactors and other systems (e.g., payroll, ERP, talent systems).
  2. Ensure data consistency, quality, and governance across platforms.
  3. Work with middleware tools (e.g., SAP CPI) and APIs for robust system connectivity.

• Stakeholder Engagement & Communication
  1. Act as the primary technical contact for senior stakeholders regarding SuccessFactors architecture.
  2. Present solution options, risks, and recommendations to executive committees.
  3. Facilitate workshops to gather requirements and validate designs.

• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
  1. Monitor SAP roadmap and release updates, advising on adoption strategies.
  2. Drive optimization initiatives to improve system performance and user experience.
  3. Mentor junior architects and configuration specialists.

• Extensive experience (10+ years) in SAP HCM solutions, with at least 5+ years in SAP SuccessFactors across multiple modules. Experience in SAP Joule is beneficial.
• Proven track record as a Solution Architect in large-scale, multi-country implementations.
• Strong understanding of integration technologies and middleware (SAP CPI, Dell Boomi, etc.), especially to payroll and time management solutions as well as to other SAP S/4 HANA modules
• Expert knowledge of HR processes, compliance requirements, and industry best practices.
• Excellent communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and manage multiple priorities.
• Language skills: Fluent in written and spoken English and German

• Strong communication and negotiation skills, as well as mental flexibility
• Strong ability to analyse situations and solve problems
• Willingness to work on-site with our customers