Systems Engineer - ABAP

Location: San Jose, CA or New York City
Remote: Considered; travel required

About Tessera Labs

Tessera Labs is redefining how enterprises modernize and operate their core systems using enterprise-intelligent AI. Backed by Foundation Capital and built by leaders from top technology and research institutions, Tessera delivers multi-agent AI systems that automate complex workflows across SAP, Salesforce, Workday, Snowflake, Oracle, and other mission-critical platforms.

Our mission is to compress years of enterprise transformation into weeks; safely, governably, and with measurable outcomes. We operate with extreme ownership, move quickly, and build at the frontier of applied AI for regulated, large-scale enterprise environments.

Role Summary

The Systems Engineer – SAP ABAP plays a critical role in analyzing, remediating, and modernizing complex SAP custom code landscapes within Tessera’s AI-native platform. This role blends deep ABAP development expertise—particularly custom code remediation, S/4HANA adaptation, and performance optimization—with systems engineering discipline, integration design, and applied AI-driven automation.

You will work hands-on within SAP ECC and S/4HANA environments, performing detailed custom code analysis, configuring and executing ATC and readiness scans, resolving deprecated objects, and refactoring legacy ABAP to align with clean-core and extensibility best practices. You will also support cross-system integrations and enable AI-driven automation across ERP and adjacent enterprise platforms.

This role is ideal for an engineer who understands how SAP systems operate in real production environments—across application, data, and integration layers—and can modernize highly customized landscapes safely, governably, and intelligently using automation and AI.

Key Responsibilities

1. Code Analysis & Technical Remediation

• Perform deep analysis of legacy ABAP programs, includes, enhancements, and custom frameworks.

• Identify and resolve S/4HANA incompatibilities, deprecated objects, and obsolete logic.

• Execute and interpret ATC checks, S/4 readiness assessments, and remediation findings.

• Refactor custom developments to align with HANA-optimized SQL and simplified data models.

• Investigate runtime errors, short dumps, update failures, and Gateway inconsistencies.

• Redesign WRICEF components to reduce complexity and improve maintainability.

• Strengthen performance through trace analysis, indexing strategies, and CDS-based redesign.

• Ensure extensibility patterns follow clean-core and upgrade-safe principles.

2. S/4HANA Readiness & Technical Transformation

• Prepare ECC systems for S/4HANA conversion through structured custom code adaptation.

• Re-architect legacy reporting using CDS Views, AMDP, and modern ABAP constructs.

• Support transition to RESTful ABAP Programming Model (RAP) where applicable.

• Implement side-by-side extensibility via SAP BTP when core modification is not appropriate.

• Modernize forms and output frameworks (SAPscript, SmartForms, Adobe Forms).

• Contribute to transport, versioning, and Git-based development strategies.

3. Integration Engineering & Event Enablement

• Design and troubleshoot SAP integrations using IDocs, RFCs, BAPIs, OData, and APIs.

• Analyze trigger-based logic embedded in legacy programs and refactor toward event-driven patterns.

• Support middleware-based integration scenarios and cross-platform orchestration.

• Ensure data integrity and transactional consistency across enterprise landscapes.

• Monitor and resolve integration bottlenecks affecting upstream or downstream systems.

4. AI-Augmented SAP Engineering

• Leverage AI tools to scan custom ABAP repositories for risk indicators and remediation opportunities.

• Identify hard-coded logic, implicit dependencies, and undocumented integration triggers.

• Support automated insertion of service calls and governance controls within custom logic.

• Collaborate with AI engineers to operationalize SAP observability and intelligent workflow automation.

• Transform undocumented SAP systems into analyzable, structured technical assets.

5. Delivery Execution & Stakeholder Alignment

• Act as a senior technical contributor during SAP remediation and modernization programs.

• Translate complex ABAP findings into structured remediation roadmaps.

• Partner with enterprise architects, AI engineers, and delivery teams to ensure safe implementation.

• Communicate technical risk assessments and modernization strategies clearly to stakeholders.

• Participate in customer-facing workshops and milestone-driven onsite engagements.

6. Reliability, Governance & Engineering Discipline

• Deliver production-ready solutions in high-availability enterprise environments.

• Maintain auditability and traceability throughout remediation efforts.

• Balance modernization velocity with upgrade safety and compliance requirements.

• Contribute to internal standards for ABAP code quality and modernization frameworks.

Technical Skills

SAP & ABAP Expertise

• Advanced ABAP programming and debugging capabilities.

• Experience operating within complex ECC and S/4HANA systems.

• Strong knowledge of SAP data structures and simplified S/4HANA data models.

• Practical experience with:

  • CDS Views

  • AMDP

  • RAP

• Enhancement Framework (BAdIs, user exits, implicit/explicit enhancements)

• WRICEF development objects

• Proven ability to run and remediate ATC findings in both GUI and ADT environments.

• Familiarity with SAPUI5 and Fiori extensibility models (advantageous).

• Experience with SAP BTP extensibility concepts.

• Exposure to Git-based source management preferred.

• Joule experience in Eclipse is an advantage.

Enterprise Connectivity

• Strong understanding of SAP integration technologies (IDoc, RFC, BAPI, OData, APIs).

• Exposure to middleware platforms and event-based integration strategies.

• Ability to assess cross-system impacts of custom SAP logic.

Engineering & Automation

• Experience analyzing large custom codebases and undocumented logic.

• Capability to implement automation frameworks within ABAP-driven systems.

• Working knowledge of Java, Node.js, or Python is beneficial.

• Exposure to AI-driven development acceleration tools is a plus.

Cloud & Infrastructure Awareness

• Familiarity with SAP BTP and cloud-based extensibility.

• Exposure to AWS, GCP, or Azure environments.

• Understanding of monitoring, logging, and secure transport practices.

Required Qualifications

• 5–10+ years of hands-on SAP ABAP development experience.

• Demonstrated experience in custom code remediation or S/4HANA adaptation initiatives.

• Strong debugging and root-cause analysis skills in production SAP environments.

• Experience navigating highly customized enterprise SAP landscapes.

• Ability to operate independently in complex modernization efforts.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Willingness to travel to U.S.-based customer sites as required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Participation in ECC to S/4HANA transformation programs.

• Experience designing or refactoring event-driven SAP processes.

• Prior customer-facing technical leadership experience.

• Background in regulated or compliance-heavy industries.

• Exposure to AI-enabled modernization initiatives.

Behavioral & Problem-Solving Expectations

• High accountability for technical outcomes and system stability.

• Analytical mindset when working with incomplete documentation.

• Ability to methodically reduce technical debt in legacy systems.

• Clear and structured documentation practices.

• Comfortable collaborating across SAP, AI, and enterprise architecture teams.