Audience Development Strategist (Search & AI Discoverability)

WHO WE ARE

Consumer Reports is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to a fair and just marketplace for all. CR is known for our rigorous testing and trusted ratings on thousands of products and services. We report extensively on consumer trends and challenges and survey millions of people in the U.S. each year. We leverage our evidence-based approach to advocate for consumer rights working with policymakers and companies to find solutions for safer products and fair practices.

Our mission starts with you. We offer medical benefits that start on your first day as a CR employee that include behavioral health coverage family planning and a generous 401K match. Learn more about how CR advocates on behalf of our employees.

OVERVIEW

Our Audience Development team operationalizes Consumer Reports mission to create a safe fairer and more transparent marketplace by ensuring our trusted independent guidance is visible wherever people make decisionsacross search AI-generated answers and emerging a time of information overload this is more important than ever.

The Audience Development Strategist will help grow CRs audience and membership base through search engine optimization as well as generative engine optimization coordinating and aligning those efforts as they develop along the burgeoning AI frontier with an emphasized and outsized lean into GEO.

Reporting to the Associate Director Audience Development the Strategist will create a search-first culture and influence stakeholders with a collaborative spirit to leverage search as a powerful driver of business goals including membership revenue.

This hybrid position with in-office collaboration (Yonkers and/or Yonkers) just once per month provides excellent flexibility. This position is not eligible for relocation assistance or sponsorship.

How Youll Make An Impact

Working in tandem with the Associate Director and SEO Specialist you will help CRs digital presence evolve in parallel with consumers changing needs. Areas of focus will include:

• Lead and drive the day-to-day audience development program roadmap and growth.
• Keep current on SEO/GEO trends best practices and search news.
• Lead the procurement and briefing process for external partners; prioritize findings with internal stakeholders.
• Evaluate select and onboard new technical search tools.
• Utilize technical tools to analyze and identify technical SEO/GEO/AI search site issues.
• Manage search projects from start to finish.
• Work with external partners to establish and maintain a review process for schema and other technical search factors.
• Perform periodic analysis of core web content.
• Partner with the Acquisition team to ensure aligned search marketing and conversion efforts.
• Develop and execute training sessions that promote org-wide implementation
• Facilitate budgeting forecasting and re-forecasting and vendor invoicing.

ABOUT YOU

Youll Be Highly Rated If:

• You have the experience--7 years experience in audience development content strategy or audience insights roles
• You have optimized high-volume consumer-facing platforms for both traditional search engines and/or AI-driven answer engines.
• Youve developed audience strategies focused on un/structured data entity authority semantic and agentic search and citation visibilityand doing so for paywalled subscription-based membership-driven sites and content.
• You know the tools of the trade i.e. Google Analytics Adobe Analytics and bring a proficient understanding of zero-click behavior AI-driven traffic shifts and answer inclusion metrics.
• You have deep demonstrable experience with major SEO platforms (SEMRush Conductor Google Search Console Screaming Frog Lumar).
• You have hands-on experience onboarding and implementing GEO monitoring and AI visibility tools with measurable results.
• You can lead the development and execution of prompt testing citation audits and AI visibility assessments across major platforms.

Youll Be One of Our Top Picks If:

• You are entrepreneurial digitally savvy creative and experimental.
• You have the passion for SEO GEO AEOand the growing list of acronyms across this space
• You have the ability to guide and influence teams (internal and external) to work on projects from inception to completion while meeting deadlines
• You have a strong quantitative orientation and ability to mine data to drive strategy and tactics and can translate these into pitch-oriented presentations.

FAIR PAY AND A JUST WORKPLACE

At Consumer Reports we are committed to fair transparent pay and we strive to provide competitive market-informed target salary range for this position is$137K-$142K. It is anticipated that most qualified candidates will fall near the middle of this range. Compensation for the successful candidate will be informed by the candidates particular combination of knowledge skills competencies and experience. We have three locations: Yonkers NY Washington DC and Colchester CT. We are registered to do business in and can only hire from the following states and federal district: Arizona California Connecticut Illinois Maryland Massachusetts Michigan New Hampshire New Jersey New York Texas Vermont Virginia and Washington DC.

Salary ranges

• NY/California: $137K-$142K annually
• DMV/Massachusetts: $132K-$137K annually
• Colchester CT and additional approved CR locations: $128K-$140K annually

Consumer Reports is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in employment on the basis of actual or perceived race color creed religion age national origin ancestry citizenship status sex or gender (including pregnancy childbirth related medical conditions or lactation) gender identity and expression (including transgender status) sexual orientation marital status military service or veteran status protected medical condition as defined by applicable state or local law disability genetic information or any other basis protected by applicable federal state or local laws. Consumer Reports will provide you with any reasonable assistance or accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process.