Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs

This Chief of Staff, R&D role stands out in the SaaS landscape because it sits at the operating center of a product and engineering organization inside a mature, enterprise-focused platform business. With SmartRecruiters now part of SAP, the remit naturally touches the realities of building software that must perform at global scale while aligning with broader enterprise governance and stakeholder expectations.

For a SaaS career, the work builds durable operating leverage: translating strategy into roadmaps and review cadences, tightening execution through OKRs, and improving how R&D communicates with go-to-market and executive teams. The mix of escalation handling, executive-ready narratives, and cross-functional project ownership mirrors the coordination challenges that recur across subscription businesses—where customer impact, delivery predictability, and internal alignment are tightly linked.

The role is best suited to professionals who enjoy being a force multiplier rather than a single-threaded owner, and who are comfortable switching between structured planning and ambiguous problem-solving. It fits someone who can partner closely with senior product and engineering leaders, keep multiple workstreams moving, and bring judgment to sensitive issues while maintaining clear, consistent internal communication.

The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.

Job Description

Company Description

SmartRecruiters is the Recruiting AI Company that transforms hiring for the world’s leading enterprises. Built for global scale, SmartRecruiters, an SAP company, delivers an AI-powered hiring platform that automates and optimizes the entire talent acquisition process, ensuring faster and smarter hiring decisions. More than 4,000 companies, including Amazon, Visa, and McDonald's, rely on SmartRecruiters to build winning teams. In 2025, SmartRecruiters joined SAP, the global leader in enterprise applications. Together, SmartRecruiters and SAP are accelerating the reinvention of hiring by combining cutting-edge AI innovation with the scale, reach, and resources of SAP’s ecosystem.

At SmartRecruiters, we are a values-driven, globally focused tech company with strong financial backing and a bold vision for the future of work. We commit and dig deep, embracing challenges with grit, curiosity, and a drive for excellence. We foster a collaborative and inclusive work environment, where trust and determination bring us together. Because together, we will win.

Recognized by Fosway Industry Analysts as a strategic leader in recruitment technology for three consecutive years, and awarded by Comparably as a top company for Women, Perks and Benefits, Work-Life Balance, Happiness, Compensation, Diversity, and Culture - we take pride in creating a place where everyone can thrive. Our remote-friendly culture, competitive salaries, and strong internal mobility ensure that high performers have meaningful growth opportunities in an environment built on respect and empowerment.

Job Description

R&D Amplifier

As a key support to the R&D leaders, the Chief of Staff will enhance the leaders impact by:

Acting as a buffer: Resolving challenges, addressing escalations, and managing sensitive issues before they reach the leaders
Providing counsel: Serving as a thought partner to the R&D leaders and offering tailored advice to the R&D team members and cross-functional leaders
Improving communication: Bridging communication gaps between R&D, executive leaders, and GTM teams to foster alignment and manage R&D-related internal communications
Supporting the leader: Supporting the Engineering and Product leaders' schedule, coordinating travel, and responding to inquiries on their behalf
Recruiting & sourcing: identifying talent gaps, helping in building a hiring plan, and prioritizing hiring efforts across engineering leaders
Meeting management: Preparing agendas, taking detailed notes, and driving follow-ups and tracking actions for R&D-led meetings, including those with the Executive and GTM teams
Leading and supporting planning process: Supporting R&D in managing reoccurring events such as roadmap planning and prioritization, market analysis, review cycles, demos and org restructuring
Drive the creation of executive-ready R&D decks and documentation: ensuring clarity, alignment, and consistency across All Hands decks and SAP leadership related communications
Orchestrating and coordinating the request for product and engineering customer engagement: will direct and coordinate the different requests to the right people in the R&D organization ensuring efficiency and customers needs are met

R&D Operations

The Chief of Staff will ensure the R&D organization vision is executed across teams by:

Managing projects: Acting as the Project Manager for large-scale, cross-functional initiatives, ensuring decisions are made and goals are met
Guiding others: Advising R&D department heads on team efficiency, offering recommendations on organizational design and process improvements
Temporary leadership: Stepping in as interim leadership for key R&D teams during transitions, ensuring continuity until new leaders are in place
Offsite management: Coordinating, facilitating, and setting agendas for R&D team offsites and strategic planning sessions
OKR management: Overseeing the creation, tracking, and reporting of R&D-focused OKRs, identifying areas for adjustment as needed to ensure organizational success

Qualifications

This role is for an individual who thrives in a fast-paced, high-impact environment and is passionate about driving R&D success. You are a problem solver, a proactive strategist, and a natural leader who enjoys managing complex projects and aligning diverse teams toward common goals.

5–10+ years of experience in product, engineering, program management, strategy, operations, or a Chief of Staff role within a technology-driven organization
Strong R&D domain fluency: deep understanding of how Product and Engineering teams operate, including roadmapping, prioritization, delivery, and technical tradeoffs
Proven experience partnering with senior executives (VP+, CPO, CTO, SVP Engineering) as a trusted advisor and thought partner
Exceptional execution and project leadership skills, with a track record of driving complex, cross-functional initiatives to completion
Excellent communication skills—written, verbal, and executive presence—with the ability to influence without authority and tailor messaging to different audiences
Strategic mindset with operational rigor: ability to zoom out to strategy while diving deep into details when needed
Strong organizational and prioritization skills, capable of managing multiple workstreams in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment
Experience with OKR frameworks, operating cadences, and performance management in R&D organizations
Demonstrated ability to navigate sensitive situations, manage escalations, and handle confidential information with discretion and judgment
People leadership experience or demonstrated ability to step into interim leadership roles and guide teams through change
Customer- and business-oriented mindset, with experience collaborating closely with GTM, Sales, Customer Success, and Executive teams
Comfort operating in high-growth, scaling, or transformational environments, including org changes, new operating models, or AI-driven initiatives
Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or equivalent experience preferred

Additional Information

SmartRecruiters is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

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Chief of Staff, R&D