Group Director, Search

About the Role

We are looking for a strong, passionate, and energetic Search leader to drive growth and strategic oversight across the paid search department with a focus on working on our largest accounts and serving as an SME on LLM optimization for organic and paid synergy. We are looking for someone passionate about search-driven performance marketing and well-versed in both organic search and paid search.

This individual should be a people-focused leader who enjoys hands-on, cross-functional collaboration and wants to join a fast-growing, innovative digital agency that is hyper-focused on client performance and ROI.

• Reporting to our SVP, Head of Search, this role will serve as a people leader, inclusive of SEM channel specialists (Paid search, You Tube, Demand Gen, PMax, Shopping, and App) as well as Account Leads managing direct client partnerships, contract negotiations/renewals, client onboards, etc., in addition to SEO specialists.
• This role will serve as a Search thought leader prepared to respond to the changing landscape
• The ideal candidate will have recent experience in SEO/GEO or AEO/AIO, as well as direct experience optimizing for LLMs across paid and organic search
• This candidate should come with a strong POV regarding how to operationalize a GTM approach for LLM optimization
• Hands-on experience and knowledge of content and tech audits for organic search
• Comfortable working with SEO reporting and visibility monitoring
• Responsible for revenue driven from new business, client relationships, and client growth
• Will serve as an escalation point across a set of top clients and will be highly active in pitches, scoping, and working closely with our growth team
• Will present Paid Search and organic strategy, performance, and tactical priorities to the client and internal stakeholders
• Partners with cross-channel leads on creating media plans, including forecasting, testing, tactical plans, and reporting
• Drives Search strategy, innovation & testing on your book of business while improving performance, developing quarterly or annual roadmaps to keep advancing accounts with the latest trends and opportunities
• Present QBRs, planning presentations, and testing plans regularly
• Lead client calls from a paid search perspective
• Forecasting, budgeting, and diminishing return analysis
• Manages others from Account Managers to Directors
• Accountable for team growth (training and mentorship) and retention
• Highly involved with hiring and onboarding new employees
• Manages a team with advanced SEM skills, multi-channel digital marketing strategy, and client management skills, including projections, analytics reporting, etc.
• Delivers feedback, performance reviews, support, and recognition in pursuit of achieving team goals
• Helps lead career pathing and coaching
• Serves as a senior sponsor on your team’s accounts, developing senior client relationships and guiding holistic digital strategy
• Responsible for training for the team, department, and agency
• Contribute to team morale and culture through engagement, team building, and mentorship
• Contribute to overall department training, POVs, award submissions, and case studies
• Works closely with Google, Bing, and other vendor partners on alpha and beta opportunities, expansion opportunities, client strategy and planning, and best practices
• Responsible for operationalizing processes and helping gain adoption across team focus areas
• Assist in creating a team culture across a hybrid working model

• 12+ years Paid Search experience
• Experience communicating with senior clients' points of contact from VPs to C-Suite
• Experience handling direct management of Paid Search budgets of at least $1MM+ in monthly ad spend
• Recent experience optimizing to LLMs across paid and organic search and will have organic and paid search experience
• Experience directing strategy in D2C or Retail, B2B, and B2C digital advertising efforts across different verticals is a major plus
• Experience in You Tube, Performance Max, Demand Gen, and Value-Based Bidding, understanding of Offline Conversion Data, and CRM integrations with Google Ads a plus
• Advanced slide presentation making and Excel /…