Associate Director of SEO

Silverback Strategies is a performance marketing agency on a mission to build the best agency culture. Our goal is to enable specialists to do what they do best so that our clients win every time. Silverback has won best places to work awards from Ad Age, Inc Magazine, The Washingtonian and The Washington Business Journal. Our success is based on our people, a growing collection of A-plus performers who thrive in our environment.

We have a tight-knit team that’s high-energy, competitive and fun. It’s like working at a startup, minus the uncertainty. We live by our motto: we’re in this together.

Today, we’re ready to add a new Associate Director of SEO to the agency. This person will act as a leader to a team of 2-4 talented SEO subject matter experts. You’re a true organic channel expert, developing and managing a portfolio of client strategies, enhancing relationships, managing timelines and deliverables, and growing performance. You’ll also serve as a “thought leader” for SEO within the agency, helping to drive Silverback’s SEO product forward and contributing to the growth and success of our SEO vertical.

You will serve as the team lead and people manager for a team of 2-4 dedicated SEO Account Managers. You are a self-motivated individual who will inspire team members to do timely, high-quality work for their individual clients while leading account strategy (delegating out tactical execution) on 1-2 larger, more complex client accounts.

The Associate Director of SEO is expected to work cross-functionally, finding opportunities to enhance our clients’ overall digital programs through SEO initiatives and complementary strategies with other services. You’ll work closely with and report directly to the Director of SEO, with whom you’ll take an active role in innovating on the continued development of Silverback’s SEO best practices and product offerings, while working closely with Silverback’s Content Strategy and Web Development teams. You’ll also collaborate with experts in Paid Media, Analytics and Creative.

Here’s what we expect from our Associate Director of SEO.

What You’ll Do

The Associate Director of SEO’s responsibilities can be broken down into three categories:

Channel Expertise & Innovation

• Responsible for driving the strategy, innovation, and performance of multiple client SEO strategies and building long-lasting client relationships
• Directly plan, implement, and audit organic campaigns & SEO strategies that align with client KPIs and marketing goals
• Plays lead role in developing SEO channel strategy for clients, aligned with organizational and marketing goals and KPIs
• Responsible for quality of SEO deliverables and strategy, including alignment to client’s marketing objectives, across an SEO team’s portfolio
• Lead channel innovation efforts, ensuring clients’ SEO strategies are following evolving SEO best practices
• Understand clients’ industries, audience, and goals and stay on top of industry changes, trends & best practices, and search engine updates.
• Independently stays up-to-date on industry trends and changes, emerging SEO technologies, and best practices, etc to proactively implement into your own client work — as well as sharing these updates and insights with your team.

Strategic Client Relationship

• Identify upsell opportunities for clients on your team
• Serves as the main SEO point of contact OR point of escalation for clients in your portfolio — responsible for managing and maintaining positive relationships with clients
• Clearly develops and communicates complex SEO strategy and execution details to clients, providing expert opinion on client questions
• Clearly and accurately communicate project timelines, managing client expectations, and adhering to established internal workflows

Team Collaboration & Workflow

• Mentors team members on SEO best practices & strategies and account management techniques
• Serve as a people manager and team lead for junior members of the SEO team, coaching individuals on performance and professional development, and promoting a positive, collaborative work environment while contributing to the team’s growth
• Work closely with the Director of SEO to innovate on the continued development of Silverback’s SEO best practices and product offerings
• Serve as an SEO “thought leader” within the agency — help drive Silverback’s SEO product forward through proactive, cutting-edge industry knowledge and a genuine enthusiasm for SEO & digital marketing
• Translate channel strategy to time-bound, tactical roadmaps and delegate tactical execution to SEO Managers and Specialists when appropriate
• Collaborates with Senior Paid Media Manager(s) and Team Leads on cross-channel marketing strategy for clients when relevant / shared client portfolios; collaborate with analytics, content, design, and dev team members.
• Leverage internal project management tool to create and assign tasks, ensuring a smooth workflow among SEO team members on the team
• Utilizes and delegates appropriately to Silverback’s Support Team to manage time and take tasks off your plate

What We’re Looking For

• 4-5+ years of digital and/or performance marketing agency experience in SEO-specific roles
• Previous people management / team lead experience with strong people development skills is a MUST-HAVE. Minimum 1.5 years of people management experience required.
• Experience with cross-functional digital marketing strategies
• Extensive experience with SEO website migrations
• Experience building excellent iterative SEO strategies
• Experienced data storytelling and data visualization
• Experience with Google Search Console and SEO Tools & Platforms such as SEMRush, Moz, Screaming Frog, etc
• Experience with analytics suites such Google Analytics 4
• Experience with data visualization
• Basic HTML and CSS competency
• Advanced skill with Excel and/or Google Sheets
• Outstanding time management and organization skills
• A strong team player with the ability to work solo as needed

WORK ENVIRONMENT

• We’re a remote friendly team. Whether you work remotely or out of our office, you’ll be part of a remote work culture that emphasizes online communication (Slack, Zoom).
• We at Silverback pride ourselves on being an extremely tight-knit team. We boast an unparalleled culture of collaboration, empathy, and a truly “work hard, play hard” mentality.
• We are consistently recognized as a Top Workplace on Glassdoor, and were most recently awarded a prestigious 150 Top Workplaces of 2021 designation by the Washington Post. Apply today & discover for yourself what makes Silverback Strategies such a special place to work. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Silverback Strategies is an equal opportunity employer. If you believe you meet the qualifications for the position, then we invite you to apply. We celebrate the free flow of conversation, ideas and opinions at Silverback, but actions such as bullying, discrimination, harassment or retaliation of any kind are strictly prohibited in our workplace. We are committed to providing a safe, open and accommodating environment that allows all of our team members to thrive. Employment decisions are made without regard to age, color, disability, family, genetic information, origin, race, religion, sex. For more information, we invite you to visit eeoc.gov.

Silverback Strategies