Search Engine Optimization Team Lead

Organization: Pioneer Academics

Position: SEO Lead

Location: India (US EST time zone)

Compensation: Commensurate with Experience

Organization Description:

Pioneer Academics is a growing global organization that offers transformative co-curricular educational programming to students from around the world. Based in the Philadelphia region, United States, Pioneer has employees working in multiple countries in roles ranging from business development to instructional design. Culture in this team is prioritized and celebrated, and key aspects of that culture include integrity, accountability, and the keen ability to solve AND seek problems to spark innovation.

Mission of the Position:

SEO Lead

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and execute a

  comprehensive 24-month SEO roadmap

  to expand Pioneer's organic search dominance against aggressive competitors.
• Conduct

  keyword opportunity mapping

  aligned with Pioneer's program areas (research, college admissions, AI in education, academic integrity, etc.).
• Establish and lead a team of SEO writers, editors, and analysts—building scalable systems for continuous content optimization.
• Collaborate with communications and design teams to ensure SEO integration across all digital campaigns and new content launches.

Technical & Analytical

• Conduct ongoing

  SEO audits

  to identify crawl issues, site architecture improvements, and ranking opportunities.
• Optimize website structure, internal linking, and metadata for performance and accessibility.
• Use Google Search Console, GA4, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or equivalent tools to track and report KPIs.
• Monitor and adapt to algorithm changes, ensuring compliance with Google’s

  Helpful Content

  and

  EEAT (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

  principles.

Content & Editorial SEO

• Develop and manage a

  content keyword pipeline

  tied to search intent, focusing on long-form educational articles, research insights, and counselor resources.
• Work closely with writers to ensure SEO best practices are embedded without compromising academic tone or accuracy.
• Conduct competitor analysis to identify content gaps and propose counterstrategies.
• Coordinate with outreach teams to earn high-quality backlinks from credible educational and media sources.

Required Competencies:

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, data analytics, or related field.
• Total Experience of 5 to 8 years
• 3 to 5 years of experience in SEO strategy, with a proven record of

  significant organic traffic growth

  for educational or mission-driven organizations.
• Deep familiarity with

  content-driven SEO

  ,

  semantic keyword mapping

  , and

  international search optimization

  .
• Strong analytical skills with command of tools such as GA4, GSC, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog.
• Excellent written communication and editorial judgment.
• Strategic mindset: able to translate business goals into measurable SEO initiatives.

Preferred

• Experience managing or mentoring SEO/content teams.
• Experience in

  education, nonprofit, or academic sectors

  .
• Familiarity with compliance and ethics in digital marketing (Google’s site reputation and transparency standards).
• Basic understanding of HTML/CSS and CMS platforms (WordPress preferred).