Search Engine Optimization Team Lead

Job Description

About the Role: We are seeking a forward-thinking SEO Strategist who brings the strategic acumen of a consultant, the technical clarity of an SEO expert, and the customer empathy of a product thinker. The role’s scope is dependent on the preferred candidate's capabilities and career aspirations. The role may either lead the SEO team or act as a thought leader and strategic advisor, deeply involved in mentoring, guiding, and empowering our internal SEO team. If you enjoy building long-term organic strategies while enabling teams to execute with confidence and clarity—this role is for you. Your work won’t just be about ranking pages, but about building an intent-first SEO engine that helps students navigate life-changing decisions—from course discovery and visa guidance to scholarships and job pathways. Key Responsibilities 1. Vision & Strategy Development Design a future-proof SEO roadmap in line with evolving trends like AI Search, SGE, LLM integration, and zero-click behaviors. Use Jobs-To-Be-Done frameworks to guide strategy—aligning keyword themes to real-world student intent and emotional triggers across the journey. Help the organization move from keyword-based to intent-based content planning—empowering both scale and personalization. 2. Strategic Support to SEO Team (Leadership or Advisory) Depending on the candidate's experience and aspirations, this role may either lead the internal SEO team or act as a strategic advisor and mentor. Lead weekly consultative sessions to unblock tactical challenges, recommend new directions, and foster SEO-first thinking across functions. Guide the team on building playbooks for content clusters, technical health, interlinking, and authority-building. Empower team members to own their SEO verticals (destinations, products, formats) with strategic frameworks you provide. 3. Cross-Functional Influence Work closely with content, design, tech, data, and country marketing teams to ensure search-first collaboration. Partner with analytics and product teams to build visibility into SEO funnel performance, especially top and mid-funnel intent drop-offs. Ensure every effort is aligned to a student-first outcome—whether it’s discoverability, helpfulness, or decision support. Ideal Candidate Profile ✅ Must-Haves ● 8+ years in SEO with at least 2 years in a consultative or strategic SEO role ● Demonstrated experience mentoring or coaching SEO teams (or potential to lead) ● Strong grasp of user psychology, keyword intent, and JTBD principles ● Advanced skills across technical SEO, content architecture, E-E-A-T, schema, and SEO analytics ● Familiar with AI’s impact on search—from content generation to prompt-based workflows and AI-driven SERPs ✅ Preferred ● Experience working on both agency and client-side SEO teams, providing a comprehensive understanding of diverse client needs and internal ownership. Bonus Points ● Experience in international education, higher ed, or student products ● Built/led topical authority frameworks, hub & spoke models, or knowledge graphs ● Implemented AI/ML-enabled SEO experimentation or content clustering ● Familiar with SGE testing, Perplexity AI, Bing Copilot, or Gemini search models ● Ability to communicate SEO strategies in business-first language for senior stakeholders You’ll Thrive in This Role If You Are: ● A visionary who doesn’t wait for trends to go mainstream ● Someone who thinks like a product owner of organic search ● Comfortable in a consultative setup—guiding without owning execution (or capable of leading a team) ● A team-first leader who believes in enabling, not micromanaging (or a strong individual contributor with leadership potential) ● Passionate about solving real student problems—not just search problems Success Metrics ● Clear SEO roadmap aligned to changing search trends and business priorities ● Measurable growth in non-branded organic visibility and conversion ● Strategic uplift in content depth, search experience, and topical authority ● Increased confidence and independence in the internal SEO execution team (or strong strategic influence) ● Preparedness for future models of search (AI, multimodal, conversational) Why This Role Matters This is not a traditional SEO role. It's a strategic anchor for the future of search within our student engagement ecosystem. You’ll help shape a search function that’s built for humans first, algorithms second—while creating long-term value for millions of students across 12+ countries. This role provides flexibility for the right candidate to either lead or advise based on their strengths and career goals. Show more Show less