Job Summary
The Associate Manager - SAM will lead client-facing Software Asset Management delivery for enterprise publishers, with primary focus on SAP, IBM and Microsoft. The role is accountable for translating contract terms, entitlement records, discovery data and SAM tool outputs into defensible Effective License Positions, compliance insights and optimization recommendations. The role is expected to guide a SAM delivery team, manage stakeholder governance, and support functional implementation or enhancement of SAM tools such as Flexera and ServiceNow SAM Pro.
Key Responsibilities
SAM delivery leadership: Lead day-to-day SAM delivery for assigned clients, including planning, task prioritization, quality review, risk tracking and stakeholder reporting.
Publisher compliance and ELP: Oversee license compliance assessments and ELP preparation for SAP, IBM and Microsoft, including entitlement validation, consumption normalization, metric application and variance analysis.
Contract and entitlement interpretation: Review agreements, purchase records, product terms, subscription rights, support status, bundles and usage restrictions to define the correct compliance methodology.
SAP licensing review: Guide SAP user, engine, HANA, S/4HANA and indirect usage reviews by validating system extracts, user classifications, role mapping and license measurement outputs.
IBM licensing review: Support IBM licensing evaluations covering Passport Advantage records, PVU/VPC/Authorized User/AppPoints concepts, ILMT or BigFix Inventory evidence and sub-capacity considerations.
Microsoft licensing review: Support Microsoft compliance reviews across M365, Azure, Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio and related agreement constructs using portal and entitlement evidence.
Tier-2 and Tier-3 publishers: Lead or review SAM activities for additional publishers such as Adobe, VMware, Red Hat, ServiceNow, Citrix, BMC, Quest and other client-specific vendors.
Tooling implementation: Provide functional direction for Flexera and ServiceNow SAM Pro configuration, entitlement upload, SKU-to-model mapping, software model validation, license creation, normalization and reconciliation.
Discovery and data validation: Coordinate with discovery, CMDB, infrastructure and application teams to validate inventory coverage, server mapping, SaaS data, user extracts and deployment models.
Optimization: Identify license harvesting, right-sizing, contract rationalization, renewal and architecture optimization opportunities while maintaining compliance defensibility.
Team enablement: Coach SAM analysts and licensing specialists, review workpapers, define calculation logic, and ensure consistent documentation of assumptions and exclusions.
Governance and reporting: Prepare executive-ready compliance dashboards, risk registers, ELP summaries, remediation trackers and stakeholder meeting inputs.
Delivery and leadership: Ability to lead a team, manage client deliverables, structure reviews, communicate risks, and convert technical licensing findings into business-ready recommendations.
Preferred Experience and Credentials
Recommended 7+ years of SAM / ITAM experience with 3+ years in enterprise publisher compliance, ELP or audit support roles.
Experience in creating ELP workbooks, compliance position reports, risk and remediation registers, and renewal optimization inputs.
Good working knowledge of Excel-based reconciliation, data cleansing, pivot analysis, entitlement-to-consumption mapping and executive reporting.
Certifications such as CSAM, CITAM, IAITAM, Flexera, ServiceNow SAM Pro, Microsoft, IBM or SAP licensing certifications are preferred.