Yes, you can set your membership page settings for auto-renewal, even with a hard expiration date.  For memberships with hard expiration dates, a new membership page must be created each year. Be sure you have your new page created when you are getting close to your renewal date to do Step 2 below.

Step 1: On the Event Setting tab, select the auto-renew options. Pay-later cannot be enabled for auto-renewals.

Step 2: On each membership level, scroll to the bottom of the window and under Auto-Renewal Section, and select the new year's Membership Name (name of the page) and Membership Level that this level will renew into. Click Update to save the changes. On the expiration date, the membership will automatically renew into the new year's page and level. The credit card on file for the constituent will be charged the price listed on the new year's page for the indicated level.

Note that memberships that are set up with recurring payments can also be auto-renewed on the same schedule as was previously set up.