SEO Manager (Syd or Melb)

Hatched; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Hatched in Sydney/Melbourne is seeking an SEO Manager for a full-time, hybrid role. You will drive organic growth through traditional SEO and Generative/Answer Engine Optimisation, collaborating with clients and our SEO & Content team to improve rankings, traffic, and citation share across AI platforms.

The role requires 3+ years of hands-on SEO, strong analytical skills, and experience with GA4, GSC and AI-visibility tracking.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on SEO experience in-house or agency.
• Proven ability to develop and implement SEO strategies including AI/visibility initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute strategic SEO initiatives spanning traditional and AI-driven visibility.

Skills

SEO strategy

GEO/AEO fundamentals

Analytics proficiency

Technical SEO

Content strategy

Project management

Communication

HTML/CSS basics

Tools

Google Analytics 4

Google Search Console

SEMrush

Ahrefs

Similarweb

Job description

This is a full-time, hybrid role for an SEO Manager at Hatched in Sydney or Melbourne. As a Google Premier Partner and a recognised agency partner with Meta, LinkedIn and TikTok, Hatched is deeply passionate about the art of media.

Search has changed shape. AI Overviews, AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot now sit between our clients and their customers for a growing share of queries, and zero-click behaviour is the norm rather than the exception. This role is for someone who can operate across both worlds at once: classic organic SEO that still drives the majority of commercial traffic, and Generative/Answer Engine Optimisation (GEO/AEO) that earns citation and visibility inside AI-generated answers.

As a SEO Manager, you'll develop and execute SEO and AI-visibility strategies that drive organic growth for our clients. You'll work closely with clients to understand their business goals and collaborate with the SEO & Content team to improve search rankings, increase organic traffic, and build citation share across AI platforms. Your responsibilities span keyword and query-fan-out research, competitive analysis, on-page and off-page optimisation, technical and AI-crawler audits, content structuring for extractability, and AI visibility measurement and reporting.

We're looking for someone who is genuinely curious about how search is evolving, stays ahead of algorithm and AI-platform updates, and thrives in a collaborative, fast-paced environment where the playbook is still being written.

Reporting directly to the SEO Director, this role offers the opportunity to grow and take on more responsibility as our team rapidly expands to meet the demands of a growing roster of ambitious clients.

Core responsibilities

• Develop and execute strategic SEO initiatives that align with client business goals, spanning both traditional organic search and AI/answer engine visibility.
• Conduct in-depth keyword research, query fan-out mapping and competitive analysis to identify growth opportunities across Google and AI platforms.
• Structure and brief content for AI extractability so pages are citation-ready as well as rankable.
• Monitor and analyse performance using tools like Google Analytics 4, Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs and Similarweb, alongside AI-visibility tracking to measure citation share in ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews and AI Mode.
• Lead technical SEO audits, including AI crawler access checks (robots.txt, llms.txt, JS rendering, Cloudflare bot settings) and collaborate with developers to implement key fixes.
• Drive high-quality link acquisition and brand-mention strategies (earned media, Reddit, YouTube, Wikipedia, review platforms) to build authority signals that both Google and AI platforms rely on.
• Stay ahead of industry trends, algorithm updates and AI-platform citation behaviour, proactively adjusting strategies as the search landscape shifts.
• Deliver clear, data-driven reports that translate both classic SEO metrics and AI-visibility measurement (framed as trends and share-of-voice, not fixed rank) into insight clients can act on.
• Optimise local SEO efforts, including Google Business Profile management, citation building and local entity consistency.

What experience and qualifications do you need to have?

• 3+ years of hands-on SEO experience, either in-house or at an agency.
• Proven ability to develop and implement SEO strategies that drive traffic and improve rankings, with genuine curiosity about how AI search is reshaping the discipline.
• Working knowledge of GEO/AEO fundamentals.
• Proficiency with SEO tools like Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs and Similarweb; exposure to an AI-visibility tracking platform is a strong plus.
• Solid understanding of on-page and technical SEO, structured data/schema markup, and content structuring for both crawlers and AI retrieval.
• Experience with link-building strategies, backlink analysis and third-party brand-mention building
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data and turn it into actionable recommendations.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to explain SEO and AI-visibility concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines effectively.
• Nice-to-have: basic knowledge of HTML, CSS and CMS platforms such as WordPress.
• Nice-to-have: experience working alongside paid search specialists or broader media teams to align organic and paid strategy

What team and people experience are needed to be successful in the role?

• Able to work independently and autonomously on projects as and when required.
• A team player, with a can-do attitude and the ability to collaborate with the entire team.
• Strong passion for learning and growing as the search and AI landscape keeps shifting.
• Experience managing clients' expectations and excellent communication skills, including setting realistic expectations around AI-visibility volatility.
• High attention to detail with good organisational and project management skills.
• Analytical and data-driven, with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to think critically about a fast-changing field.