Chicago - N. State / Digital Performance

Merkle Inc.; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 65,000 - 75,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Vision & Dental insurance

401k with match

Flexible PTO & Holidays

Parental leave

Job summary

Merkle Inc. is seeking a Sr. Strategist, SEO & AI Discovery to lead SEO strategy across a portfolio of client accounts in Chicago.

You will own complex audits, translate search performance into business outcomes, and serve as a trusted day-to-day search lead for stakeholders. This senior IC role blends technical SEO, content strategy, AI discovery, and performance measurement to drive client success. You will develop scalable on-page and AI-driven strategies, manage end-to-end delivery, mentor

Qualifications

• 3+ years of progressive SEO experience in agency/consultancy or multi-stakeholder environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead SEO strategy across assigned accounts and connect recommendations to client goals.
• Own audits and analyses across technical SEO, content, and AI visibility.
• Develop measurement frameworks linking organic visibility to business outcomes.
• Turn data into decisions using multiple data sources and tools.
• Create actionable recommendations with clear impact and guidance.

Skills

SEO strategy

Audits & analyses

AI discovery

Client advisory

Data interpretation

Presentation skills

Project ownership

Mentoring

Cross-functional collaboration

Storytelling with data

Tools

Google Search Console

GA4

Screaming Frog

Sitebulb

Ahrefs

SEMrush

Rank tracking platforms

Data Studio

Job description

As a Sr. Strategist, SEO & AI Discovery at Merkle, you will lead SEO strategy across a portfolio of client accounts, setting program direction, owning complex audits and recommendations, and translating search performance into business outcomes. This role is built for a senior individual contributor who can move comfortably between technical SEO, content and on-page strategy, AI-driven discovery, performance measurement, and client advisory. You will serve as a trusted lead for assigned accounts, helping clients understand what is happening, why it matters, and what to do next.

Core Responsibilities

• Lead SEO strategy across assigned accounts: Set search program direction, prioritize workstreams, and ensure recommendations connect to client business goals, marketing priorities, and measurable outcomes.
• Serve as the day-to-day search lead: Build trusted relationships with client stakeholders, understand their goals, KPIs, business context, priorities, and decision-making dynamics, and translate search priorities into clear, business-relevant action.
• Own complex SEO / AI audits and analyses: Independently diagnose performance opportunities across technical SEO, content and on-page optimization, AI Search visibility, competitive landscape, and site architecture.
• Develop measurement frameworks: Define SEO reporting structures that connect organic visibility, technical health, content performance, classic SERP visibility, AI Overview presence, LLM visibility, and business outcomes.
• Turn data into decisions: Analyze data from GSC, GA4, crawl tools, rank tracking, log files, AI visibility platforms, and third-party tools to identify patterns, explain performance shifts, and prioritize action.
• Create actionable recommendations: Translate findings into prioritized recommendations with clear impact, effort, dependencies, confidence level, and implementation guidance for client, content, and engineering teams.
• Advance content and AI Search visibility: Lead search intent mapping, topical authority planning, SERP feature analysis, AI Overview evaluation, LLM visibility analysis, entity and brand authority recommendations, and scalable on-page optimization frameworks.
• Own delivery quality: Manage assigned SEO workstreams end-to-end, including scoping, work planning, QA, stakeholder updates, timeline management, and on-time delivery.
• Mentor and review junior work: Coach consultants and staff consultants on analysis planning, data interpretation, recommendation quality, deliverable structure, and client-ready communication.
• Support account growth: Identify organic growth opportunities, contribute SEO expertise to pitches, RFPs, renewals, and SOW scoping, and help shape work that is clearly scoped, valuable to clients, and feasible for the team to deliver.
• Improve the SEO practice: Contribute to internal templates, playbooks, QA standards, training materials, AI-assisted workflows, and process improvements that help the team deliver better work at scale.

What You’ll Bring

• 3+ years of progressive SEO experience, preferably in an agency, consultancy, or complex multi-stakeholder environment.
• Demonstrated capability in SEO analysis and measurement, including the ability to combine multiple data sources and translate findings into business-relevant recommendations.
• Hands-on experience with tools such as Google Search Console, GA4, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Ahrefs, SEMRush, enterprise crawlers, rank tracking platforms, Data Studio, and AI visibility tracking platforms.
• Ability to build clear, persuasive client deliverables, including audits, executive summaries, dashboards, roadmaps, and strategic recommendation decks.
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to adjust communication for executives, marketers, engineers, content teams, and internal stakeholders.
• Experience leading client conversations, answering questions in real time, and explaining and supporting recommendations with evidence, context, and judgment.
• Working knowledge of AI Search, including AI Overviews, LLM-powered discovery, citation visibility, entity authority, and AI-assisted SEO workflows.
• Strong project and workstream ownership, including the ability to manage timelines, flag risks early, coordinate with PMs and cross-functional teams, and keep stakeholders informed.
• Comfort mentoring consultants and staff consultants and reviewing their work for analytical accuracy, strategic clarity, and client readiness.

Preferred / Bonus Experience

• BigQuery, SQL, Python, server log analysis, API-based reporting, or other scalable data workflows.
• Experience with international SEO, e-commerce SEO, local SEO, video/image SEO, link building, digital PR, or SEO testing.
• Experience developing reusable SEO templates, processes, playbooks, training materials, or productized service offerings.

Leadership & Ways of Working

• You are proactive, responsive, and self-directed. You readily provide status/account updates, risks, or next steps.
• You can manage multiple accounts or workstreams at once without losing quality, context, or follow-through.
• You are comfortable with ambiguity and can turn broad client questions into structured analysis plans and practical recommendations.
• You raise risks early, propose paths forward, and balance client needs with team capacity and scope boundaries.
• You help make the team better by sharing what you know, improving how work gets done, and creating space for consultants and staff consultants to grow.

The annual salary range for this position is65K- 75K.Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factorspermittedby law.

Benefits available with this position include:

Medical, vision, and dental insurance,

Life insurance,

Short-term and long-term disability insurance,

401k,

Flexible paid time off,

At least 15 paid holidays per year,

Paid sick and safe leave, and

Paid parental leave.

Dentsu alsocomplies withapplicable state and local lawsregardingemployee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time offpursuant tothe Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act,in accordance withits plans and policies. For further detailsregardingDentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com.

Atdentsu, we believegreat workhappens whenwe’reconnected. Our way of working combines flexibility with in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currentlylocatedin Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, arerequiredand expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu maydesignateother Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may bedesignated asremote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office.