SEO/AEO Strategist
Level: Senior
Team: UX Operations / Digital Experience
Work Location: Hybrid or Onsite (based on business requirements)
Reporting: Reports to a Director or Senior Leader within UX, Digital Experience, or Product Operations
Hiring Timeframe: Immediate
Management Responsibilities: None
Travel: Minimal to none
About the Role
We are seeking a hands-on SEO/AEO Strategist to improve how customers discover products, services, and digital experiences across traditional search engines, answer engines, and AI-powered search experiences.
This role combines search strategy with technical diagnosis and direct implementation. The ideal candidate will not simply generate audits and recommendations, but will actively contribute to implementing and validating SEO and AEO improvements across websites, content management systems, and digital platforms.
The SEO/AEO Strategist will partner with Product, UX, Engineering, Content, and Technology teams to prioritize, deliver, and measure initiatives that improve crawlability, indexation, site architecture, content discoverability, and visibility across both traditional search and AI-generated answer experiences.
The role connects customer intent and business goals to measurable improvements in search performance and digital discoverability.
Key Responsibilities
Technical SEO
Audit and optimize crawlability, indexation, sitemaps, redirects, canonicalization, site architecture, internal linking, metadata, and other technical factors impacting search visibility.
Hands-On Implementation
Directly implement or contribute to changes involving HTML, page templates, metadata, CMS configurations, structured data, and technical SEO enhancements. Validate changes before and after deployment.
Structured Data & Schema
Implement, maintain, and validate schema markup and structured data to improve search engine and answer-engine understanding of content, products, services, and business entities.
SEO & AEO Strategy
Develop and execute SEO and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategies that improve visibility across search engines, AI-powered search experiences, and conversational platforms.
AI Search Optimization
Evaluate how content appears within AI-generated answers and emerging search experiences. Identify opportunities and translate findings into actionable technical and content improvements.
Search Intent & Journey Mapping
Analyze search behavior, user intent, and customer journeys to align content and digital experiences with audience needs.
Product Backlog & Prioritization
Translate audits, analytics, and search insights into business requirements, prioritized enhancements, and acceptance criteria in partnership with Product and UX stakeholders.
Engineering Collaboration
Work closely with Product, Engineering, UX, and Technology teams to navigate implementation requirements, release processes, dependencies, and post-launch validation.
Measurement & Optimization
Leverage analytics, search performance data, crawling platforms, and AI-visibility metrics to prioritize improvements, evaluate outcomes, and communicate business impact.
Content & Information Architecture
Provide guidance on keyword research, topic development, content strategy, taxonomy design, page structure, internal linking, and content optimization.
Governance & Enablement
Develop standards, playbooks, training materials, and repeatable processes that help teams maintain scalable search-friendly digital experiences.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience in SEO, Technical SEO, AEO, Search Experience Optimization, Digital Experience, or a related field.
- Demonstrated expertise resolving technical SEO issues related to crawlability, indexation, site architecture, redirects, canonicalization, and search accessibility.
- Hands-on experience implementing web changes involving HTML, metadata, templates, CMS platforms, or structured data.
- Experience designing, implementing, and validating schema markup and structured data.
- Strong understanding of how search engines, AI-powered search platforms, and answer engines discover, interpret, and surface content.
- Experience working within CMS environments and collaborating through engineering review, release, and deployment processes.
- Proven ability to partner effectively with Product, UX, Engineering, Content, and Technology teams.
- Strong analytical skills with experience using data to prioritize initiatives and measure outcomes.
- Excellent written, verbal, and stakeholder communication skills.
- Experience managing multiple initiatives in agile product and digital environments.
- Portfolio, case studies, or documented examples demonstrating SEO/AEO implementations and measurable results.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience optimizing digital content for generative AI platforms, answer engines, and conversational search.
- Experience with programmatic SEO, enterprise-scale content management, and large-site optimization.
- Experience supporting e-commerce, digital commerce, customer engagement, or transactional web experiences.
- Familiarity with enterprise SEO tools such as BrightEdge, Conductor, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Botify, Screaming Frog, or similar platforms.
- Experience with competitive analysis, keyword research, topic modeling, and search trend forecasting.
- Experience incorporating SEO and search requirements into UX processes, design systems, and content governance practices.
Education
Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Information Science, Communications, Digital Media, Business, Computer Science, or a related field preferred. Equivalent professional experience may be considered in lieu of formal education.
Recruiter Summary
This is a hands-on technical SEO/AEO role, not a traditional digital marketing strategist position. The ideal candidate has a strong mix of technical SEO expertise, implementation experience, AI-search optimization knowledge, and cross-functional product collaboration skills, with a track record of driving measurable improvements in search visibility and digital discoverability.
