Associate Director, Search, GCS

wppmedia; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenMind by WPP is seeking an experienced SEO Lead to oversee Nestlé's European accounts. You will guide a zone-wide team of search specialists, setting strategy, aligning with brand goals, and driving organic growth across multiple markets.

You will partner with Nestlé's regional leads, manage stakeholders, and ensure delivery of scalable SEO solutions, while mentoring junior staff and advancing industry-leading practices.

Qualifications

• Impressive track record delivering multimarket SEO strategies.
• Experience working with organisations comprising multiple business units and cross-market overlap.
• Strong knowledge across technical SEO, content, and digital PR.
• Experience managing and supporting multilayer SEO operations and teams.

Responsibilities

• Build operational SEO excellence across ZEUR, managing varied stakeholders to ensure successful delivery.
• High-level SEO KPI management and market governance across the Zone.
• Lead the delivery of best-in-class organic search strategies across Nestlé Europe.
• Collaborate with Nestlé Search Leads to align strategic focuses with business units.
• Manage direct reports and a wider team of SEO specialists.

Skills

SEO leadership

stakeholder management

team management

multimarket SEO

technical SEO

Job description

About WPP Media

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships - all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open - we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth.

WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.

For more information, visit wppmedia.com .

3826 - Associate Director, Search, GCS

Role Summary and Impact

About OpenMind : A Leading WPP Media Brand

OpenMind by WPP is an integrated agency model drawing on talent from across WPP. It has been created to accelerate the European transformation for Nestlé's media function. Core to the solution is the advanced best data and technology capabilities, fuelled by WPP's investment in AI, to maximise the impact of Nestlé media investment.

Role Summary and Impact

OpenMind oversees Nestle's media activity in Zone Europe. With dozens of countries, +450 team members, and regular new product launches, the account is looking for a ZEUR SEO Lead to provide strong SEO experience and leadership for in-scope Nestle categories, supporting the ZEUR Search Leads. Being above market, the role offers plenty of variety, with an enjoyable balance between driving growth for brands, strategic consultancy and laying the framework for excellence, ensuring we're delivering change at scale. We have a clear plan to create something special with Nestlé's SEO and we'd love you to be a part of it.

We have a unique opportunity to raise the bar for SEO across ZEUR, working with some of the biggest brands on the planet eager to showcase their supremacy online. As the SEO Lead in the Above Market Zone team, you'd be leading a group of Search specialists holding authority across the Zone. You will be partnering with brands to ensure they have a clear strategy in place to maximize on the organic opportunity available, which will include working with brands at varied stages of digital maturity. A key part of this role is developing your sizeable supporting team of SEO specialists who will be practically involved at every level, crawling sites, assessing data and developing solutions to achieve SEO success. You will help drive the education of the wider Local Market teams on your approach to ensure the same principles ring true across the region, driving SEO excellence further still. As such, excellent operational team management is essential to ensure all European stakeholders are working in unison towards your strategic vision.

Responsibilities:

• Build operational SEO excellence across ZEUR, managing varied stakeholders to ensure the successful running of a significant total client budget across above-market and in-market teams.
• High-level SEO KPI management and market governance to effectively track performance across Zone.
• Spearhead the delivery of best in-class organic search strategies at a zone level to maximise the SEO performance across Nestle Europe. These strategies then need to be adapted and rolled out for specific business units. It is vital we're taking advantage of the short-term opportunities for Nestle whilst laying strong foundations for future changes in search.
• Work closely with the ZEUR Nestle Search Leads to ensure the SEO strategic focuses align with those of the specific business units.
• Effective, positive management of a few direct reports and a wider team of SEO specialists.
• Build up a constructive, positive rapport with senior client contacts and third-party enablers including content agencies and development teams.
• A confident presenter with the ability to take what can often be quite complicated SEO concepts, distilling them down into key actions and outcomes for relevant stakeholders.
• Commitment to progressing initiatives focused on driving share of voice and positive consumer experiences on-site.
• Stay up to date on the latest trends in SEO and adapting the strategy accordingly.

Your Knowledge & Abilities

• Impressive track record of delivering multimarket SEO strategies and charting subsequent improved business performance. We view our clients' businesses as our own and we expect you to as well.
• Experience working with businesses which are made up of multiple business units and the complexity of how those businesses overlap from a search perspective.
• Strong knowledge across all areas of SEO from technical to content and digital PR. Depending on the market and the business units, the best opportunities will vary, as will the subsequent requirements from the SEO team.
• Experience managing and supporting multilayer SEO operations across above market, clusters, and in-market. With the focus on ensuring consistent excellence and delivery of the overall strat