Paid Search & SEM Growth Engineer

Cognition; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognition, an applied AI lab in San Francisco, is seeking a hands-on paid search specialist to help optimize user acquisition. You’ll build accounts, set up tracking, test landing pages, and report cost per signup and payback to leadership.

You’ll collaborate with SEO, lifecycle and web teams to ensure the funnel converts. The ideal candidate has deep paid search experience, fluency with GA4 and BigQuery, and a bias for action.

Qualifications

• Experience running paid search at a software or consumer company and enjoying the detail of it.
• Analytical fluency with ad platforms, GA4 and BigQuery, able to distinguish signal from noise.
• Hands-on preference: you’d rather do the work than manage an agency.
• Conversion thinking: you care about what happens after the click as much as the click.

Responsibilities

• Build the accounts properly: Keyword strategy, bidding, account structure and audiences, set up so every dollar is accounted for.
• Get tracking right: Conversion tracking, including offline conversions, so we optimize toward signups and revenue rather than clicks.
• Test landing pages: Work with the web team on pages that convert, and keep testing.
• Report what matters: Weekly cost per signup, payback and incrementality that leadership can trust.
• Connect the funnel: Work with SEO, lifecycle and the web team so the whole path converts, not just the ad.

Skills

Paid search

GA4 & BigQuery

Conversion optimization

Data-driven decision making

Hands-on execution

Job description

Cognition, an applied AI lab in San Francisco, is seeking a hands-on paid search specialist to help optimize user acquisition. You’ll build accounts, set up tracking, test landing pages, and report cost per signup and payback to leadership.

You’ll collaborate with SEO, lifecycle and web teams to ensure the funnel converts. The ideal candidate has deep paid search experience, fluency with GA4 and BigQuery, and a bias for action.