Hybrid Ai-Driven Organic Search Lead

Havas Media Australia; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Parental leave

Havas From Anywhere

Hava Rest Days

Paid volunteer leave

Career development

Culture of belonging

Sydney CBD location

Job summary

Havas Media Australia is seeking an experienced Organic & AI Manager to lead a portfolio of client accounts across organic search and AI visibility. You will own strategy, delivery and reporting, building GEO methodology and an AI visibility platform.

You’ll collaborate with senior leaders, mentor the team, and shape a market-leading AI search offering while thriving in a flexible hybrid Sydney environment.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in SEO/organic with hands-on AI search work.
• Ability to explain AI retrieval and grounding to a CMO.
• Experience with an AI visibility platform is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery for a defined client book: strategy, roadmaps, execution and reporting.
• Own the department's AI visibility practice and platform development.
• Train the wider team on AI visibility delivery and governance.
• Support new business with technical substance for pitches and briefs.
• Build strong client relationships and facilitate workshops.
• Create reusable automations for briefs, schema, audits and reporting.

Skills

SEO/organic experience

AI search

GEO methodology

Communication

Team enablement

Client management

Presentation

Tools

GA4

Google Search Console

SEMrush

AI visibility platform

Peec AI

Profound

Otterly

Job description

Why work at HAVAS?

We’re a Certified Great Place To Work. There Are Plenty Of Reasons Why, But These Are Some Of Our Favourites

Why work at HAVAS?

We’re a Certified Great Place To Work. There Are Plenty Of Reasons Why, But These Are Some Of Our Favourites

Industry leading parental leave

BECAUSE your family matters, and being there for the important moments shouldn’t come at the expense of your career.

Hybrid working: 3 office anchor days, 2 days working from home

BECAUSE we believe great work can happen without being in the office five days a week.

Flexible working, with core hours of 10am to 4pm on office anchor days

BECAUSE life doesn’t always fit neatly around a 9 to 5. School drop offs, appointments and everything in between matter too.

Havas From Anywhere: work from anywhere for up to one month

BECAUSE sometimes being closer to family, extending a trip or simply changing your surroundings makes life better.

Hava Rest Days: 2 additional days off every year to recharge

BECAUSE proper rest makes us better humans, not just better employees.

Paid volunteer leave

BECAUSE we want you to have the time to support the causes and communities that matter to you.

Career development through leading internal and external providers

BECAUSE your career should keep moving forward, and we want to invest in where you want to go next.

A culture of belonging, supported by our Employee Resource Groups

BECAUSE you should never have to leave part of yourself at the door when you come to work.

Sydney CBD location in the heart of The Rocks

BECAUSE if we’re coming together in person, it should be somewhere worth coming to.

And so much more

BECAUSE the best workplaces don’t just offer benefits. They create an environment where people can build a career and a life that work together.

The Opportunity

AI search is the next major shift in organic visibility and most brands don't have a strategy for it yet. Havas Media's Organic & AI Performance team is building that capability now, helping clients understand and grow their presence across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and other AI surfaces, alongside best-in-class organic search.

This is a rare opportunity to join a new-model organic department at build stage: you won't inherit someone else's playbook, you'll write it. As our AI visibility specialist, you'll own the methodology, tooling and standards that make Havas Media the go-to agency for AI search in Australia, while running your own portfolio of enterprise clients.

The Role

The Organic & AI Manager owns a portfolio of client accounts end-to-end across both organic search and AI visibility, and holds specialist ownership of AI visibility for the whole department — the deepest AI search practitioner in the team.

With 4+ years of experience in SEO/organic and demonstrable hands-on AI search work, this role leads strategy, delivery and reporting for a defined client book, while building the GEO methodology, owning our AI visibility platform, and training the wider team.

You’ll report to the Organic & AI Director and work closely with the Head of Organic & AI Performance on pitches, landscape briefings and the development of a market-first AI visibility offering.

Key Responsibilities

• Client Delivery (Portfolio Ownership): Act as day-to-day delivery lead for a defined client book — strategy, roadmaps, execution and reporting. Deliver across the full service mix: technical SEO, content strategy, AI Overview optimisation, LLM brand presence, and entity and structured data strategy. Produce monthly insight-led performance reporting using our portfolio of tools.
• AI Visibility Leadership (Specialist Ownership): Own the department's AI visibility practice. Set up and run our AI platform including prompt tracking design, competitor sets, and the reporting templates used across all clients. Build and maintain the GEO methodology: AI visibility audit frameworks, AI-readable content standards, and zero-click strategy playbooks.
• Team Enablement: Train the wider team on AI visibility delivery so the whole department delivers both organic and AI. Share learnings, tools and techniques through our workshop cadence and team meetings.
• New Business Support: Support the Head of Organic & AI Performance with technical substance for AI visibility pitches, proposals and AI search landscape briefings for senior client stakeholders.
• Client Communication: Build strong relationships at working-team level, acting as a trusted advisor on organic and AI visibility strategy. Facilitate client workshops and clearly communicate complex AI search concepts to non-technical audiences.
• AI-Assisted Ways of Working: Use AI tools as the default in day-to-day delivery within our quality governance. Build simple, reusable automations for repetitive tasks (briefs, schema, audits, reporting) and share them with the team.
• Industry Knowledge: Stay at the forefront of the fastest-moving space in search — AI platforms, GEO techniques and industry developments and contribute to agency thought leadership on AI search.

Required Skills & Experience

• 4+ years of experience in SEO/organic, with demonstrable hands-on AI search work: AI Overview tracking, LLM visibility measurement, GEO or answer-engine optimisation on real client accounts
• Working knowledge of how LLM retrieval and citation works (RAG, grounding, entity recognition) and the ability to explain it clearly to a CMO
• Experience with an AI visibility platform (Peec AI, Profound, Otterly or similar) strongly preferred
• Strong command of the organic analytics stack: GA4, Google Search Console, SEMrush
• Solid technical SEO and structured data foundations
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences
• Comfortable using AI tools in day-to-day delivery, with sound judgement on quality governance
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage multiple accounts and prioritise effectively
• A genuine curiosity about where AI search is heading and the drive to help define how brands respond

Who are we?

Havas Media is the media experience agency of the Havas Village. Our Organic & AI Performance team is repositioning what an organic practice looks like: integrated SEO and AI visibility, AI-assisted ways of working, and a deliberate focus on the surfaces where brand discovery is moving. You'll join a small, senior, tight-knit team at the ground floor of that build with the backing of one of Australia's leading media networks behind you.

We invest in our team's success, wellbeing and growth. Here’s what you can look forward to:

Career-Defining Territory:

• Commitment to Growth: Training, professional development and clear career progression, including development through Havas University and industry programs.
• Flexible Hybrid Work: A balanced schedule combining in-person collaboration at the Havas Village in Sydney with flexibility.
• Collaborative Village Model: Work alongside specialists across media, creative, PR and CX with direct access to leadership in a team built around client needs, not org charts.

About HAVAS

The Havas Village is a unique model — creative, digital, content, PR, media and partnerships, all under one roof. We build teams around our clients' needs, not our own structures, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Our mission? To make a meaningful difference to the brands, businesses and lives of the people we work with. We're proud to be a Great Place to Work Certified company.

At HAVAS, we are committed to building a future that is inclusive to all, where you can bring your whole self to work and feel valued, respected, and supported to succeed. We encourage people from diverse backgrounds, identities, beliefs, age, and abilities, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, to apply for this or any role with us.