License Management Specialist

About the Role DDN is seeking a highly motivated License Management Specialist to own and continuously improve the end-to-end software licensing, entitlement, and software customer enablement process across DDN’s portfolio, including EXAScaler, Infinia, Horizon, and future software offerings. The role ensures that software-related orders transition successfully from booking through licensing readiness validation, entitlement confirmation, license generation, delivery, activation, and ongoing license lifecycle management. The License Management Specialist will partner closely with Order Management, Asset Management, Global Support, Engineering, Product Management, Customer Success, Renewals, Deal Desk, Finance, and GTM Systems. Asset creation, product and hardware configuration, serial-number mapping, install-location maintenance, and support-record setup are managed by the relevant upstream Asset Management and Support functions. This role uses those validated inputs to execute accurate and timely software licensing and entitlement activities. This is not a traditional license administration position. It is an opportunity for someone who can manage today’s on-premises licensing operations while helping design scalable, automated capabilities for DDN’s evolving software, subscription, hybrid, and cloud portfolio. Key Responsibilities Own the end-to-end software licensing and entitlement lifecycle from booked order through successful software customer enablement. Validate booked orders, products, contract terms, customer entitlements, support eligibility, and licensing prerequisites before software fulfillment. Manage software license generation, delivery, activation, entitlement updates, and license-related customer communication. Confirm that the required asset, configuration, serial-number mapping, install-location, contract, and support information is available before licensing execution. Partner with Asset Management and Support teams to resolve upstream data or configuration gaps that prevent accurate licensing. Manage license-related changes resulting from expansions, upgrades, migrations, transfers, renewals, replacements, RMAs, and decommissioning. Maintain accurate and reliable software licensing and entitlement records across applicable enterprise and licensing systems. Monitor licensing requests, operational queues, service levels, backlog, escalations, and customer-impacting exceptions. Partner with Engineering, Product Management, Support, Customer Success, Renewals, Deal Desk, Finance, and Order Management to resolve complex licensing issues. Develop and maintain licensing procedures, controls, knowledge articles, dashboards, and operational reporting. Identify recurring process gaps and drive improvements that reduce manual work, licensing errors, turnaround time, and customer escalations. Partner with Salesforce, CPQ, ERP, Revenue Cloud, licensing-platform, and workflow teams to automate licensing and entitlement processes. Support new product introductions and help define future licensing processes for subscription, SaaS, cloud, consumption-based, and hybrid hardware-software offerings. Provide support across regions when needed, including flexibility to work across time zones for critical business needs. Success Measures Deliver accurate software licenses and entitlements within agreed service levels. Improve the transition from order booking to software activation and customer use. Reduce licensing defects, manual follow-up, processing delays, and customer escalations. Maintain high-quality software licensing and entitlement data. Provide clear visibility into licensing volumes, backlog, aging, exceptions, and operational performance. Establish effective handoffs with Asset Management, Support, Order Management, Engineering, and other partner teams. Standardize processes that currently depend on manual coordination or individual knowledge. Implement automation and process improvements that increase scale, accuracy, and customer experience. Help develop a future-ready licensing operating model supporting DDN’s growing software portfolio. Qualifications & Experience Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Information Systems, Computer Science, Engineering, Supply Chain, Operations, or a related field; equivalent relevant professional experience will also be considered. 2 - 5 years of experience in software licensing, entitlement management, software fulfillment, software customer enablement, order management, technical operations, support operations, or a related enterprise technology function. Strong understanding of enterprise software licensing, entitlement validation, on-premises software fulfillment, support eligibility, and license lifecycle management. Experience working in hardware-software environments where licensing depends on accurate asset, serial-number, configuration, contract, and support information. Experience supporting enterprise software, on-premises, subscription, SaaS, hybrid, or cloud-based offerings. Experience with Salesforce, CPQ, Revenue Cloud, ERP systems such as Oracle, SAP, or Workday, licensing or entitlement platforms, and workflow or case-management tools. Demonstrated ability to investigate operational issues, identify root causes, coordinate cross-functional resolution, and communicate effectively with technical and business stakeholders. Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills with exceptional attention to detail and the ability to manage competing priorities. Experience improving operational processes through automation, system enhancements, reporting, dashboards, KPIs, or workflow optimization. Experience within enterprise technology, infrastructure, storage, AI, high-performance computing, or a similarly complex product environment is preferred