Director, Deal Desk

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing.

"DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." – IDC 

“The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments” - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA 

DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence. 

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management. 

Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage. 

DDN is seeking a high-impact Director, Deal Desk to serve as a strategic Finance partner to our Sales organization. This individual will be instrumental in building out the Deal Desk function, driving deal velocity, and ensuring the commercial viability of our largest, most complex transactions. You will act as the "air traffic controller" for the deal lifecycle - balancing aggressive market share growth with long-term margin and revenue integrity.

Key Responsibilities

• Deal Structuring & Advisory: Act as the primary advisor to Sales for complex multi-product and multi-year deals. Build creative commercial structures (including ARR/Subscription models) that meet customer needs while protecting DDN margins.
• Commercial Guardrails: Help establish and enforce the global Approval Matrix.
• Cross-Functional Orchestration: Serve as the bridge between Sales, Legal, Finance, Operations to ensure seamless deal execution and revenue recognition.
• CPQ & Process Optimization: Partner with Sales Ops & IT to refine and scale our CPQ environment, implementing deal playbooks that reduce friction and decrease quote to booking timelines/
• Margin Analysis: Utilize robust modeling tools to evaluate deal profitability and determine approval eligibility.
• Dual-Track Negotiation: Manage high-stakes negotiations both internally with Sales and externally with DDN Customers, leveraging executive presence to challenge deal structures and defend company margins.
• Executive Engagement: Present large-scale transactions to the executive team, providing a clear rationale for exceptions, risk assessments, and strategic alignment.

Qualifications

• Experience: 8–12 years in Deal Desk, ideally within a high-growth tech environment (Storage, Cloud, or SaaS experience is a plus).
• Modeling Skills: Expert-level Excel proficiency. You must be comfortable "reverse-engineering" deals and building models to solve for specific margin and revenue targets.
• Strategic Thinking: Proven ability to move beyond "policing" deals to active "deal making" - identifying levers like Support attach rates, ARR pivots, and multi-year commitments to bridge gaps.
• Communication: Exceptional ability to translate complex financial structures into simple, persuasive terms for both Sales reps and Executive leadership.

The "DDN Fit"

• Adaptable: You are comfortable ‘building the plane while flying it’ as we establish a new pricing methodology, formalize deal playbooks & enable the field.
• Time-Zone Resilient Operator: You take full ownership of the EMEA deal flow, managing local sales expectations and cross-functional hurdles independently, ensuring the "Deal Desk" never stops moving while the US headquarters is offline.
• Analytical Rigor: You leverage data as your primary lever for influence. From modeling complex margin floors to authorizing high-value exceptions, every approval you grant is backed by a clear, data-driven business case.

DDN has a very strong orientation towards these 4 characteristics and any successful employee will demonstrate these capabilities: 

Self-Starter - Takes independent action to identify and solve problems. Seeks out relevant information needed to make decisions. Gets involved with new initiatives. 

Success/Achievement Orientation - Delivers quality results consistently. Targets, achieves (or exceeds) measurable results. Sets challenging goals, focuses on critical priorities, and is accountable. 

Problem Solving - Recognizes problems and responds with a systematic assessment that identifies and addresses cause of issue. Practical, realistic, and resourceful. 

Innovative - Builds and improves key business processes that enhance the effectiveness of DDN. Generates new ideas, challenges the status quo, and solves problems creatively.

DataDirect Networks, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

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