Associate Search Strategy Director

In this role youll lead a high-performing team of SEO and SEM marketers in driving best-in-class search strategies for some of the worlds biggest brands.

As Associate Director of Search you know how to unlock the stories found in data and translate those stories into opportunities to meet customers wherever theyre searching across the evolving digital landscape. Youll use search insights to craft data-driven strategies that demonstrate a deep understanding of our clients businesses objectives and customers. Youll also develop strategic search roadmaps and processes to drive measurable results through content strategy user experience and a strong technical foundation.

Youll play a critical role in shaping our search services and capabilities building a high-performance team and helping our clients achieve top-tier performance.

You Will:

• Own the creation definition execution and optimization of integrated SEO/SEM strategies
• Represent the Search practice within the agency serving as a strategic thought leader entrepreneur advocate and educator
• Hire manage and grow a high-performing team of search strategists
• Serve as an integral part of the account leadership team making recommendations on strategy and approach to drive innovation and performance
• Use search data (in conjunction with other research sources) to understand user intent drive content strategies and identify business opportunities for clients
• Pitch and implement new search projects and service offerings
• Define success metrics and translate SEO/SEM results to business objectives
• Align paid and organic search strategies to reduce costs while maximizing key business activities
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to incorporate SEO & SEM strategies and best practices
• Deliver actionable insights and strategic recommendations to clients through insightful visually compelling reports
• Optimize social search channels (e.g. YouTube TikTok) to maximize brand and content visibility across the digital landscape
• Conduct regular SEO/SEM audits and competitive analyses
• Develop and implement AI Search Optimization/GEO strategies
• Effectively convey SEO/SEM concepts and success stories in a concise and easy-to-understand manner
• Develop frameworks and processes to systematically track and improve search performance
• Advise on technical website development to maximize search indexability and visibility including JavaScript SEO and accessibility considerations for both users and LLM crawlers
• Define search-driven guidelines and requirements for page content copy page speed accessibility indexability structured markup site architecture URL structure page titles meta descriptions headings anchor text internal linking site maps etc.
• Monitor analyze and report on search results and performance to both internal and external stakeholders
• Keep current with the latest digital trends and changes in the search marketing landscape identifying new opportunities for clients (e.g. AI search ML-driven automation visual search voice search social search etc.)

You Have:

• 7 years of search experience
• Experience leading both paid and organic search strategies and the integration of both
• Strong communication and presentation skills with an emphasis on crafting compelling visual stories in slide format
• Experience leading and managing a team of search specialists
• Proven track record of developing and implementing search strategies that successfully drove performance and conversion growth
• Strong project management and organizational skills with the ability to drive progress and manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously
• Experience defining and documenting cross-disciplinary internal processes to improve search implementation and best practices
• Experience managing SEM campaigns with large budgets (>$100000)
• Deep understanding of search engine algorithms ranking factors SEO best practices and technical SEO
• Proficiency in third-party SEO/SEM tools such as SEMrush Ahrefs ScreamingFrog etc.
• Proficiency in data analytics and visualization tools such as Google Analytics Google Data Studio Adobe Analytics Google Search Console Tableau etc.
• Strong Excel skills including pivot tables vlook-ups and comfort working with large datasets
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data identify trends and make data-driven decisions
• Experience developing and executing content strategies that improve brand visibility traffic and engagement through content creation and optimization
• A proactive self-starter attitude
• Experience managing large-scale website migrations and redesigns
• Excellent business acumen results-orientation and written communication skills
• Experience with testing and leveraging AI tools (ChatGPT etc.) for search tasks
• Experience with GEO and AI search optimization for both AI Overviews and LLMs (ChatGPT Perplexity Gemini AI Mode etc.)
• Passion for staying current in a rapidly evolving digital environment leveraging new tools and digital marketing channels to gain a competitive edge

What We Offer:

• Global maternity and parental leave
• Competitive benefits packages
• Vacation compassionate leave sick days and flex days
• Access to online services for families and new parents
• Extensive winter holiday office closures
• Diversity and Inclusion Board with 12 affinity groups
• Internal learning and development programs
• Enterprise-wide employee discounts
  
  

Our new hires & employees are the future of our organization and we want to set you up for long-term an effort to do so we expect our team to work from the Chicago office a minimum of 3 days a week.

Critical Mass is an equal opportunity employer.

The Critical Mass Talent Acquisition team will only communicate from email addresses that use the URLs and. We will not use apps such as Facebook Messenger WhatsApp or Google Hangouts for communicating with you. We will never ask you to send us money technology or anything else to work for our company. If you believe you are the victim of a scam please review your local government consumer protections guidance and reach out to them directly.

If U.S. based: Canada based: U.K. based: Costa Rica based: Experience:

Director