Search Engine Optimization Team Lead

Anonymous; Quebec; On-site; CAD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Anonymous is seeking a Head of SEO to lead our agency's SEO department, shaping strategy, quality standards, and processes across local, technical, content, and AI-driven search. You will coach and develop strategists and specialists, ensuring scalable delivery and strong client outcomes.

The role emphasizes building a high-performing team, maintaining accountability, and evolving our SEO methodology to stay ahead of industry changes. This is a leadership position focused on sustainable growth.

Qualifications

• Leadership experience overseeing an SEO team
• Ability to set standards, priorities, processes and accountability
• Experience aligning SEO with business outcomes
• Familiarity with local, technical, content SEO and AI-driven search

Responsibilities

• Own the overall performance, direction, and development of the SEO department.
• Establish clear standards, priorities, processes, and accountability.
• Ensure the department has the right structure, skills, capacity, and resources.
• Identify gaps in people, process, technology, or service delivery and address them.
• Balance client outcomes, quality, efficiency, scalability, and profitability.
• Lead, coach, and develop SEO Strategists, Specialists, and contractors.
• Lead the agency’s evolution as search becomes increasingly influenced by AI.
• Monitor workload and capacity and optimize team utilization.
• Define and monitor department KPIs and scorecards.

Skills

SEO leadership

Team development

Stakeholder management

AI-driven SEO

Tools

Google Analytics

Screaming Frog

Job description

The Head of SEO is responsible for leading the agency’s SEO department and ensuring we deliver a high-quality, scalable, results-focused SEO service for contractor clients.

About the Role

This is a department leadership role, not simply a senior SEO strategist position. You will own the strategic direction of the SEO offering, team performance and development, quality standards, department processes, capacity, and the continued evolution of our approach as organic and AI-driven search changes. Success means building a strong department that performs consistently without requiring the Head of SEO to personally manage every account or execute every task.

Responsibilities

• Core Responsibilities
• Own the overall performance, direction, and development of the SEO department.
• Establish clear standards, priorities, processes, and accountability.
• Ensure the department has the right structure, skills, capacity, and resources.
• Identify gaps in people, process, technology, or service delivery and address them.
• Balance client outcomes, quality, efficiency, scalability, and profitability.
• Build a department that operates effectively without excessive dependence on senior leadership.
• Define the agency’s approach to effective SEO for home improvement and home service clients.
• Establish frameworks for local SEO, technical SEO, content, on-page optimization, authority building, conversion opportunities, and AI search visibility.
• Review and challenge strategy on complex, underperforming, or strategically important accounts.
• Ensure SEO priorities are based on expected business impact rather than activity for activity’s sake.
• Continuously improve the agency’s SEO methodology based on results, industry changes, and client feedback.
• Lead, coach, and develop SEO Strategists, Specialists, and contractors.
• Set clear expectations for performance, communication, ownership, and quality.
• Hold regular one-on-ones, provide feedback, and support professional growth.
• Develop Strategists into stronger thinkers, advisors, and client communicators.
• Improve Specialist execution quality, efficiency, and understanding of strategic intent.
• Identify skill gaps, high performers, emerging leaders, and performance concerns.
• Address underperformance directly and constructively.
• Quality & Accountability
• Maintain standards across SEO strategy, audits, implementation, reporting, and client communication.
• Create scalable QA processes, account reviews, scorecards, and spot checks.
• Identify recurring quality issues and solve them through training, process, or systems improvements.
• Ensure recommendations focus on high-value work, not unnecessary task volume.
• Hold the team accountable for deadlines, communication, follow-through, and quality.
• Client Performance
• Maintain visibility into SEO performance across the client portfolio.
• Identify underperforming, at‑risk, or strategically important accounts.
• Work with Marketing Strategists and SEO team members to improve account direction.
• Step into important client conversations when senior SEO expertise is required.
• Help connect SEO performance to visibility, leads, opportunity, market share, and long‑term growth.
• Support escalations where SEO strategy or performance is central to the issue.
• SEO Expertise
• Maintain strong expertise across local SEO, technical SEO, content strategy, on-page SEO, internal linking, authority building, and organic conversion opportunities.
• Guide strategy around Google Business Profiles, service areas, location pages, reviews, local visibility, crawlability, indexation, site architecture, schema, redirects, Core Web Vitals, and related technical considerations.
• Ensure content strategies are driven by search intent, competitive opportunity, topical relevance, conversion potential, and client services.
• Partner with Web Design, Development, Conversion Design, and other teams when SEO input is required.
• Lead the agency’s evolution as search becomes increasingly influenced by AI.
• Stay current on AI Overviews, generative search, LLM‑driven discovery, entity signals, structured data, citation visibility, and changing search behaviour.
• Test emerging strategies before broadly adopting them.
• Separate meaningful opportunities from industry hype.
• Work with AI and Operations resources to improve research, analysis, production, QA, reporting, and efficiency.
• Use AI as a tool to increase leverage while maintaining strong strategy, judgment, and quality.
• Continuously evaluate how SEO work is delivered.
• Simplify, standardize, automate, or eliminate unnecessary work.
• Build repeatable workflows, templates, playbooks, and documentation.
• Challenge legacy processes that no longer create sufficient value.
• Ensure senior SEO talent focuses on strategy, coaching, problem solving, and client impact rather than repetitive production.
• Monitor workload and capacity and avoid unnecessary or premature hiring.
• Increase the department’s ability to support more clients without compromising quality.
• Performance Management
• Define and monitor department KPIs and scorecards.
• Maintain visibility into client performance, work completion, quality, account health, team capacity, and retention risks.
• Own department priorities and quarterly initiatives.
• Report clearly to leadership on progress, challenges, risks, and opportunities.
• Use data to identify where intervention or improvement is required.