Employee spotlight:
Christopher Puglise
Application Engineering Senior Manager, Customer Success
Career tip:
“Success is rarely a zero-sum game. Career growth is less about climbing a ladder and more about a hand reaching down to pull you up—and then doing the same for someone else.”
- Chris Puglise
Chris is the Application Engineering Senior Manager on the Customer Success team at SAP NS2. With 25+ years of software experience, he came to SAP NS2 with deep technical knowledge and a genuine drive to solve complex problems for customers. Today, he continues to channel that drive into delivering SAP solutions for regulated customers across the U.S., thriving in an environment where expertise and mission readiness go hand in hand.
Finding opportunities in the unknown
“My SAP journey began 19 years ago and has since been full of unexpected turns, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Growing up, my family moved from Maryland to Vienna because my dad worked for the UN. His career taught me that the world is bigger than any one perspective, and that the unfamiliar is worth exploring. Leaving my first job out of university to join an internet startup in the late 1990s felt like a leap into the unknown, but it taught me that growth usually happens when you’re a little outside your comfort zone.
That love for leaping is part of what drew me to SAP NS2. In a previous life at SAP, someone referred me to SAP NS2 and mentioned the ‘startup-like feel’ here. That was very appealing to me. It was an opportunity to help shape something rather than maintain it. When the role opened, it felt like a very easy decision. I was grateful to be considered, and even more grateful it worked out!
Our industry is changing rapidly, the problems are real, and solving them means working together, not just alongside each other. Coming from SAP, a larger, 50+ years old company, that adjustment felt huge, but it taught me how to be more resourceful, more collaborative, and forward-thinking.
Now, a year into the role, I’ve strengthened my view that some uncertainty is worth seeking out. Most career decisions are far less final than they seem at the time, and in the best case, you discover a great new opportunity. In the worst case, you gain an entertaining story and a lesson that becomes considerably more enjoyable with the passage of time.”
“My SAP journey began 19 years ago and has since been full of unexpected turns, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Chris Puglise
Building seamless customer experiences
“What I enjoy most about my role is that no two days are quite the same: the common thread is finding ways to make things simpler for our customers and easier for our teams. Day-to-day, that means working across the organization to improve customer experience, whether that’s simplifying processes, staying proactive, or exploring how new technologies can help us work more effectively.
The challenge is that our customers interact with us in a lot of different ways, – across different teams, solutions, and touchpoints. From their perspective it should feel like one company, not a collection of separate teams. If we can make things clear, predictable, and positive, we remove a lot of unnecessary friction for them. Making that happen requires clear communication, a willingness to keep learning, and the ability to align around a common objective: thinking big but staying grounded in solutions that create real value.
One recent win I’m proud of is the rollout of our first AI-powered agents. They can review all a customer’s cases, summarize the overall situation, and surface what needs immediate attention. The real benefit isn’t the technology itself, but that our teams spend less time gathering information and more time focusing on the actions that will have the greatest impact on our customers.”
5 essential skills:
- Communication
- Curiosity
- Collaboration
- Consensus-building
- Pragmatism
“Something that stands out to me at SAP NS2 is how much people genuinely want to learn and grow together.”
Chris Puglise
Growing through community and curiosity
“Something that stands out to me at SAP NS2 is how much people genuinely want to learn and grow together. I’ve been part of our Customer Success “AI Early Adopter group” for over a year, and it’s been a great opportunity to share ideas, learn from others, and stay current in a field that’s evolving incredibly quickly.
We’re able to be successful because of the mix of perspectives. The pace of change is simply too fast for any one person to be the expert, so the best ideas usually emerge when people with different backgrounds compare notes and build on each other’s thinking. Many of the solutions we’ve implemented started as conversations between colleagues looking at the same problem from different angles, and that’s been one of the most rewarding parts for me.
What keeps me at SAP NS2 is the same thing that drew me in: great people and a mission that matters. If you’re curious, enjoy learning, and want to work on meaningful challenges alongside people who care, you’ll find plenty to keep you engaged.”
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