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About the Role
EssenceMediacom is seeking an Associate Director, SEO & Generative Search Optimization, to lead strategy, recommendations, and delivery of SEO and GSO across Google products and services in the U.S. This role will define how brands and products build visibility across Google Search, AI-powered search experiences, LLM platforms, and answer engines. The position requires navigating complexity to transform SEO/GSO into a clear vision, ensuring technical, content, measurement, and cross-channel strategies align with client business priorities.
Responsibilities
- Own the SEO and GSO vision for assigned Google products or product areas, connecting technical readiness, content strategy, entity authority, and AI-led discovery to measurable business priorities.
- Define strategic roadmaps for complex site environments, anticipating evolving search and AI standards and translating infrastructure needs into persuasive business cases for Product, Engineering, Marketing, and other stakeholders.
- Direct long-term content strategy across traditional and generative search, balancing audience intent, topical authority, brand representation, source inclusion, and emerging AI visibility goals.
- Own the narrative of SEO and GSO performance by ensuring measurement frameworks, dashboards, and reporting connect search outcomes to broader business KPIs and drive clear stakeholder action.
- Serve as the primary client partner for the assigned product area, maintaining strong rapport, navigating complex stakeholder landscapes, managing expectations, and ensuring seamless delivery of the overarching search vision.
- Lead senior client presentations and strategic discussions, translating complex technical, content, and measurement findings into clear recommendations, decisions, and prioritized investment opportunities.
- Create bespoke scopes, operating frameworks, roadmaps, and delivery plans mapped to client business goals, while proactively identifying strategic growth opportunities and future areas of expansion.
- Drive operational excellence through expert project management, resource planning, timely task activation, rigorous quality control, and clear accountability across team-led delivery.
- Formalize integrated Total Search workflows across SEO, SEM, Analytics, Content, Product, Engineering, Social, PR, and other partners so organic insights influence cross-channel planning and optimization.
- Lead cross-channel analyses, testing roadmaps, and performance validation initiatives that demonstrate the business impact of integrated paid, owned, earned, and generative search strategies.
- Elevate team performance by coaching Supervisors to act as the primary quality filter, providing strategic feedback that strengthens their leadership, judgment, attention to detail, and ability to develop junior talent.
- Maintain a high bar for client-ready work, taking accountability for the accuracy, strategic depth, persuasiveness, and commercial relevance of final deliverables.
- Develop and evolve AI Search POVs, GSO methodologies, operational playbooks, process documentation, and thought leadership that strengthen the account and contribute to the agency's broader search product.
Requirements
- A minimum of 5 (five) years of organic search experience, with a proven record of leading high-performance SEO strategies for large or complex organizations; agency or media agency experience is highly desirable.
- Advanced expertise in technical SEO, content strategy, structured data, entity optimization, topical authority, international search, site migrations, and the signals that support discoverability across traditional and AI-assisted search.
- Strong understanding of AI Search, LLM platforms, answer engines, and emerging discovery behaviors, with the ability to translate market change into practical client strategy, measurement, and operating approaches.
- Demonstrated ability to define a strategic vision and convert complex technical, content, and data challenges into clear business cases, prioritized roadmaps, and client-ready recommendations.
- Strong client leadership and executive communication skills, including experience owning senior stakeholder relationships, leading strategic presentations, navigating difficult conversations, and securing alignment across functions.
- Advanced analytical and storytelling skills, with experience designing measurement frameworks, maintaining data integrity, interpreting complex datasets, and connecting SEO/GSO performance to broader business KPIs.
- Experience creating scopes of work, estimating resources, designing operating models, identifying growth opportunities, and managing delivery against commercial and operational expectations.
- Proven people management and mentorship experience, including coaching managers or Supervisors, improving quality through others, providing actionable feedback, and supporting team development and retention.
- Experience formalizing ways of working across SEM, Analytics, Content, Product, Engineering, Social, PR, and other cross-functional partners to advance integrated Total Search strategies.
- Proficiency with relevant analytics, search, crawling, reporting, and productivity platforms, including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Keyword Planner, Data Studio, Lumar, Screaming Frog, Google AI Studio and Workspace products.
- A consultative, proactive, and learning-oriented mindset, with the judgment to operate effectively through ambiguity, anticipate industry shifts, improve processes, and contribute to agency innovation, automation, and thought leadership.
Skills
- SEO
- Generative Search Optimization (GSO)
- AI Search
- LLM platforms
- Answer engines
- Technical SEO
- Content strategy
- Structured data
- Entity optimization
- Topical authority
- International search
- Site migrations
- Client leadership
- Executive communication
- Analytical skills
- Storytelling
- Measurement frameworks
- Project management
- Resource planning
- People management
- Mentorship
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Keyword Planner
- Data Studio
- Lumar
- Screaming Frog
- Google AI Studio
- Workspace products
Location
- U.S.
Work Type
- Full-time
Experience Level
- Associate Director
- 5+ years organic search experience
Salary/Compensations
- $75,000—$180,000 USD
Benefits
- Competitive benefits package
About the Company
- WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands, helping clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth.
- WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalization at scale.
- EssenceMediacom's mission is to make advertising more valuable to the world.
- EssenceMediacom seeks individuals whose values reflect genuine, results-focused, daring, and insightful qualities.
- EssenceMediacom provides a workplace that invests in employee careers, cares for employees, and creates an engaging, supportive, and rewarding environment.
Equal Opportunity
- WPP Media and all its affiliates embrace and celebrate diversity, inclusivity, and equal opportunity.
- Commitment to building teams that represent a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills.
- Belief that greater inclusivity enables stronger collaboration, better ideas, and more impactful work.