Arabic SEO Lead (MENA)

Canva; Dubai; Hybrid; AED 391,000 - 670,000; Full time

Job summary

Canva is seeking an experienced Arabic SEO Lead to drive growth across Saudi Arabia, UAE, GCC and Egypt. The role blends local market leadership with global SEO systems, embedding in the country team while contributing to Canva's central SEO engine.

You will shape a region-specific strategy covering technical, content, and authority-building pillars. Ideal candidates are native Arabic speakers with strong English, capable of building scalable local SEO operations, surfacing insights, and

Qualifications

• Native Arabic speaker with deep understanding of regional dialects and markets.
• Proven leadership of SEO teams across multiple markets.
• Experience building and executing regional SEO strategies across technical, content and link-building pillars.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end Arabic SEO strategy for KSA UAE GCC and Egypt.
• Collaborate with global SEO teams to align local priorities with international standards.
• Build and coach a high-performing local SEO team and partner with product and content teams.

Skills

Arabic SEO

Leadership

Strategy

Cross-functional

Team building

Tools

SEMrush

Ahrefs

Screaming Frog

Google Analytics

Job description

About the Team

At Canva we create tools that empower the world to design. Our mission is to democratize design and empower creativity for anyone and everyone on every platform. Since launching in August 2013 Canva has grown exponentially were one of the worlds fastest-growing startups and the journey has only just begun.

International is becoming Canvas biggest growth driver in 2026 and beyond. To reach our foundational goal of having 1 in 5 internet users use Canva every month were shifting from translating English successes to implementing truly local strategies that resonate with and convert local audiences.

The SEO group spans the globe with keyword researchers technical SEO specialists content specialists copywriters engineers data analysts designers and operations specialists. As the Arabic SEO Lead across key markets (Saudi Arabia UAE GCC and Egypt) youll be part of the Logged Out Experience (LOX) Group and International Supergroup working in a dual alignment model embedded in your region team locally while contributing to Central SEO globally.

About the Role

Youll lead Canvas SEO growth for Arabic across key markets (Saudi Arabia UAE GCC and Egypt) defining executing and scaling a strategy that reflects the unique realities of your market. This isnt about following a global playbook; its about building one for your region.

Youll own the end-to-end SEO strategy across technical content and authority-building pillars verifying the opportunity prioritising what matters and delivering measurable growth in sessions signups and engagement.
Your goal is to help Canva reach 20% market penetration within the next 23 years starting from our current 5%.

As the Arabic SEO Lead youll operate at the intersection of local strategy and global systems. Youll be embedded in your Country team as a strategic partner to your Region Manager while also contributing to Canvas centralised SEO engine within the Logged Out Experience (LOX) Group

Youll be supported by a global network of experts International SEO Leads Technical SEOs Product Managers and Content Specialists and have access to Canvas proprietary SEO platforms and best-in-class third-party tools. Youll also collaborate closely with your International SEO Strategist who provides capability leadership coaching and alignment across markets.

Success in this role means running a high-performing locally embedded SEO operation that:

• Achieves measurable impact and market penetration goals.


• Operates autonomously while aligned to Canvas global systems and standards.


• Surfaces insights innovations and frameworks that help scale the Truly Local SEO model across 40 markets.

Youll thrive here if youre both a strategist and an operator equally comfortable running audits leading discussions with your Region Manager mentoring local SEOs and proposing scalable solutions that improve how we grow internationally.

What youll do

Strategic SEO Leadership

• Lead the end-to-end SEO strategy for Saudi Arabia UAE GCC and Egypt spanning technical content and authority pillars.


• Translate market insights into a focused high-impact roadmap aligned with Canvas international growth goals.


• Continuously evaluate market performance adapt to shifts in user behaviour and prioritise the highest-ROI initiatives.


• Represent SEO as a strategic function not an execution layer in country planning discussions (your strategies align with your regions strategies and contribute to building our global SEO growth engine)

Team Building & Capability Development

• Build and lead a high-performing local SEO team (generalists content specialists outreach experts) as the market scales.


• Define clear goals rituals and development plans to grow your teams autonomy and impact.


• Foster a culture of ownership curiosity open communication and experimentation within your team and across the country organisation.

Market Expertise & Competitive Intelligence

• Become Canvas definitive expert on the Arabic search landscape platforms user intent competitors and trends.


• Continuously analyse search behaviour market signals and competitive activity to uncover new opportunities and influence the MENA roadmap.


• Validate local hypotheses through data and user insights ensuring every initiative has measurable rationale.

Content & Localisation Strategy

• Partner with localisation and design teams to deliver high-quality locally relevant content that resonates with your markets culture and search behaviour.


• Prioritise and optimise high-impact categories combining English-to-local localisation with bespoke content creation.


• Collaborate central teams to leverage scalable systems (creator templates internal linking AI tools) while tailoring them for local impact.

Technical Excellence & Link Building

• Maintain strong technical foundations: site speed indexation structured data hreflang implementation and mobile optimisation.


• Partner with the i18n Technical SEO Specialist to identify and address localised technical needs.


• Define and oversee link-building goals and tactics using outreach specialists and local partnerships to improve authority signals.

Performance Analytics & Reporting

• Develop country-specific KPIs aligned with both SEO and country business goals.


• Monitor and analyse performance across all key metrics sessions signups returning users and visibility.


• Communicate results and learnings transparently with stakeholders across Country International SEO and Central Growth teams.


• Surface insights proactively highlighting whats working whats not and how youll pivot for improvement.

Navigating the Evolution of Search & Discovery

• Monitor AI search and discovery trends across your countrytracking how users find information through ChatGPT Claude Perplexity Googles AI Overviews and other emerging AI-powered platforms


• Assess channel viability in your market: Determine where traditional SEO still drives strong ROI versus where AI discovery social search or other channels should be prioritized


• Experiment with AI optimization strategies: test approaches for visibility in AI-generated answers LLM citations and next-generation discovery experiences


• Document learnings for the global SEO engine: Share whats working (or not working) with AI search optimization in your country to inform how Canva approaches these emerging channels globally

What were looking for

MENA Market Expertise:

• Native Arabic speaker with command of regional dialect differences with business-level English


• Deep understanding of Arabic search behavior cultural nuances and internet user dynamics across key markets


• Ability to bridge local market insights with global business objectives


• Ideally based in Dubai UAE as a hybrid employee with some time in office expected

Strategic Thinking & Market Intelligence:

• Proven ability to assess markets synthesize insights and propose bespoke strategies (not just replicate playbooks)


• Experience verifying channel opportunities and knowing when to invest vs. pivot


• Capability to identify what will work in YOUR market based on data and local understanding

Proven SEO Leadership:

• Demonstrated track record leading successful SEO projects on large websites (500 pages)


• Comprehensive understanding of all three SEO pillars (content technical link building) and how they integrate


• Experience with comprehensive SEO and analytics toolset (Google Analytics Search Console SEMrush Ahrefs Screaming Frog Deepcrawl Mode Looker Dragon Metrics)

Relationship Builder & Embedded Partner:

• Outstanding communicator who brings clarity to diverse stakeholders and makes collaboration easy


• Proven ability to build trust-based partnerships and influence without authority


• Experience working cross-functionally and embedding with non-SEO teams


• Track record of translating technical SEO work into business impact that resonates with leadership

Ownership Mindset:

• You act like its your business not just your job


• You proactively propose strategies rather than waiting for direction


• You solve problems resourcefully and escalating strategically


• Youre comfortable with autonomy and accountability

Data-Driven Decision Maker:

• Excellent analytical skills for data-driven decision making


• Ability to develop reporting frameworks and KPIs that align with both SEO and business goals


• Transparent about whats working whats not and whyusing data to make the case for priorities

Team Builder (as you scale):

• Ability to recruit develop and retain high-performing teams


• Experience leading through rapid growth and scaling challenges


• Focus on building team culture where trust support and personal growth thrive

Future-Oriented & Adaptable Mindset

• Curiosity about emerging channels: Youre actively learning about AI search LLMs and how discovery is evolvingnot waiting for playbooks to be written


• Comfort with ambiguity: You can experiment with AI optimization strategies (structured data for LLMs content formatting for AI answers) even when best practices are still being established


• Channel-agnostic thinking: You understand that SEO increasingly means discoverabilitywhether thats traditional search engines AI tools social platforms or channels we havent imagined yet


• Data-driven adaptability: You can objectively assess when to double down on traditional SEO versus when to pivot resources to AI discovery (or anything else more suited)


• Early adopter energy: Youre the person whos already testing how Canva appears in ChatGPT Perplexity and Googles AI Overviewsbringing insights rather than waiting for direction

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience developing and executing multi-year market expansion strategies


• Mobile-first optimization expertise (critical for mobile-dominant markets)


• Experience working in hyper-growth startup environments


• Familiarity with multi-platform ecosystems (Google local search engines/social platforms)

What Youll Learn and How Youll Develop

• Operate as the strategic SEO leader for one of Canvas highest-priority international markets.


• Learn how to build and scale SEO operations that combine local autonomy with global consistency.


• Develop deep cross-functional influence partnering across Product Templates Engineering and Data.


• Contribute to the global SEO transformation thats redefining how Canva grows internationally.


• Strengthen leadership capabilities in people development systems design and international strategy.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time