
Associate Director, SEO
Silverback Strategies
full-time
Posted on:
Location Type: Remote
Location: United States
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Job Level
About the role
- Leadership: Partner with the Senior Director of SEO as the second-in-command leader of Silverback’s SEO department, helping set direction, priorities, and standards for the team.
- Coaching & People Management: Manage and support an industry-best organic search team, including direct oversight of 1–3 SEO Account Managers. Proactively identify coaching & upskilling opportunities, and deliver timely, candid, constructive feedback to your team.
- Client Ownership: Stay hands-on in client delivery by owning a small (2-3 accounts) portfolio of some of the agency’s key organic search clients, leading day-to-day strategy and relationship management.
- Content-Focused: Use your robust content background to streamline and modernize Silverback’s Content product and processes, bringing stronger structure, consistency, and scalability to content strategy work.
- SEO Product Innovation: Roll up your sleeves and lead the charge in collaboration with the Senior Director of SEO on SEO product innovation. Help us create & deliver SEO products and services that are measurable, reliable, and impactful in the “modern era” of search engines & user behavior.
- SEO Process Automation: Implement efficiency improvements across the SEO team by identifying & building automation opportunities/workflows — without sacrificing product quality.
- Well-Rounded Marketing Expertise: While you have a background in SEO & Content, you flex broader marketing chops to more effectively understand all the pieces of a puzzle in clients’ marketing strategies.
- Focus on Impact: Directly tie your work (and your team’s work!) back to revenue & business impact for your clients. Deprioritize “vanity metrics” and focus on real results.
- AIO / GEO Enablement: Drive the evolution of the agency’s approach to AIO / GEO, translating changes in search engines & user behavior into practical strategy, process, and client value.
- Initiative & Ownership: Operate as a self-motivated, trailblazing leader who identifies opportunities, pushes work forward, and elevates the team without needing heavy direction.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with internal teammates across measurement, paid media, and creative to bring strategies for multi-service clients to life.
Requirements
- Agency Background: You must have previous experience/tenure at an agency with a performance marketing focus. (While in-house experience is always welcome, qualified candidates for this role need to have prior agency experience and be eager to participate & lead in a fast-paced agency environment!)
- Years of Experience: Although skills alignment is more important than years of experience for this role, we’re requiring all candidates to have at least 4 years of marketing experience in order to be considered.
- People Management Experience: Qualified candidates for this role will have *at least* 1 year of people management experience under their belt, and a proven track record of managing, coaching, and developing great talent.
- Deep Content Expertise: Proven experience leading content strategy for SEO, including topic planning, keyword-to-intent mapping, content briefs, and performance-driven optimisation. Ideally, you’ve built or optimized content processes for others to follow before.
- AI Search Testing & Optimization: You have hands-on experience optimizing for AI search (not theoretical; actual tests). You don’t have all the answers — nobody does! — but you’re excited to test, experiment, and figure it out.
- Client-Facing Comfortability: This role is not a good fit for someone who doesn’t want to talk directly to clients. You must be comfortable building rapport, establishing expertise / credibility, and serving as the face of the SEO engagement with your assigned clients, as well as serving as a point of escalation for your direct reports’ clients.
- “Get Sh*t Done” Mentality: You’d rather take a big swing and miss than sit around twiddling your thumbs. You’re energized by & thrive in an environment where no two days are the same, and results are king.
- Independence & Reliability: Because you’ll be a leader within the department (and within the company as a whole!), we’re looking for people who pride themselves on a driving, results-oriented, independent work style — and who we know we can count on to produce results.
- Business Acumen: Being able to build & execute SEO strategies across multiple industries is crucial, but your ability to tie SEO wins to a measurable impact on the clients’ business, bottom line, etc is what will make you a superstar.
Benefits
- Unlimited PTO
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans
- Monthly Team Events and a fun, casual, inclusive company culture
- Company-paid ClassPass membership
- 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave
- Summer Fridays
- 401(k) with Employer Match
Applicant Tracking System Keywords
Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.
Hard Skills & Tools
SEOcontent strategykeyword mappingperformance optimizationAI search optimizationprocess automationcoachingpeople managementclient relationship managementmarketing strategy
Soft Skills
leadershipinitiativeindependencereliabilitycommunicationcollaborationcoachingproblem-solvingadaptabilityresults-oriented