Senior Manager, GEO Strategy & AI Search Activation

Kaplan; United States; Remote; USD 65,000 - 162,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work

Retirement plan

Tuition assistance

Health benefits

Paid time off

Volunteer day

Diversity day

Job summary

Kaplan is seeking a Senior Manager for GEO Strategy & AI Search Activation to drive visibility across generative AI models and knowledge bases. You will lead end-to-end GEO initiatives for higher education and Kaplan product lines, balancing hands-on execution with strategic outreach and collaboration across marketing and product teams.

The role emphasizes building entity trust, monitoring AI performance metrics, and embedding SEO best practices into cross-functional web projects.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Communications, IT, Computer Science, or related discipline.
• Minimum 6 years in organic search (SEO), digital outreach, or content marketing across multi-website portfolios.
• At least 1 year direct experience in GEO and AI search strategy.
• Experience leading cross-functional project workflows and off-page outreach campaigns.
• Strong understanding of GEO, LLM retrieval mechanics, and entity-based SEO frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Formulate and manage forward-thinking GEO and off-page search strategies for Higher Education and Test Prep lines.
• Build programmatic GEO authority across core academic and professional verticals.
• Operationalize a multi-tiered publisher engagement model and direct outreach to publications.

Skills

Bachelor's degree

SEO & content marketing

Cross-functional leadership

GEO & AI search

Publisher outreach

Analytics tooling

Communication & problem solving

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Marketing/Communications/IT/CS

Tools

Profound

Ahrefs

SEMrush

Google Search Console

Google Analytics 4

Looker Studio

Job description

Job Title Senior Manager, GEO Strategy & AI Search Activation

For more than 80 years, Kaplan has been a trailblazer in education and professional advancement. We are a global company at the intersection of education and technology, focused on collaboration, innovation, and creativity to deliver a best-in-class educational experience and make Kaplan a great place to work. The future of education is here and we are eager to work alongside those who want to make a positive impact and inspire change in the world around them.

The Senior Manager, GEO Strategy & AI Search Activation provides strategic vision, technical leadership, and off-page activation to maximize visibility across Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI search platforms. Operating across a comprehensive portfolio, this role will support higher education university clients and Kaplan test prep and professional education product lines. The Senior Manager drives innovative strategies designed to position Kaplan brands and partner institutions as primary, trusted sources for Large Language Models (LLMs) and answer engines, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. The Senior Manager balances hands-on execution and publisher outreach with cross-functional collaboration, guiding internal teams and managing workflows to drive data-driven business impact. This position directly conducts AI visibility and sentiment audits, coordinates multi-tiered publisher outreach pipelines, maintains foundational SEO and content marketing best practices, and collaborates across cross-functional marketing and product teams to expand entity trust, visibility, and citation share across LLM and AI search ecosystems.

Primary / Key Responsibilities

• Execute Channel & GEO Strategy: Formulate, deploy, and manage forward-thinking Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and off-page search strategies designed to position Higher Education client institutions and Test Prep product lines as preferred, trusted sources across generative AI models.
• Drive Programmatic GEO & Entity Authority: Build programmatic GEO authority across core academic and professional verticals, ensuring institutional entities and brand authority are accurately recognized and reinforced in LLM knowledge bases and Knowledge Graphs.
• Manage Tiered Publisher Engagement & Outreach: Operationalize a multi-tiered publisher engagement model; identify target sites, route high-profile media opportunities to internal or client PR/communications teams, and directly outreach to publications and education portals.
• Audit Sentiment & Correct Third-Party Inaccuracies: Conduct sentiment audits across influential third-party websites, education portals, and industry platforms to identify content inaccuracies, outdated product information, or negative brand drivers; execute targeted publisher outreach to correct data errors and enhance overall brand positioning across search engine results and AI models.
• Analyze and Measure AI Performance Metrics: Monitor, analyze, and report on AI performance metrics including AI visibility scores, sentiment scores, citation share, share-of-voice, and citation placements across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews using enterprise platforms such as Profound and Ahrefs.
• Integrate SEO & Content Marketing Best Practices: Identify and execute opportunities to incorporate foundational SEO and content marketing best practices (including keyword intent mapping, metadata optimization, internal linking, on-page optimizations, and content freshness) into all GEO initiatives and cross-functional web projects.
• Implement Extractable Content & Information Gain Standards: Partner with internal Content Marketing teams to optimize existing pages and close competitive content gaps with net-new content, structuring owned assets for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) extraction while embedding proprietary data and Subject Matter Expert (SME) insights to meet Information Gain criteria.
• Mobilize Cross-functional Alignment: Serve as an authoritative GEO champion across the organization, building partnerships across SEO, Affiliate, Product Marketing, Legal, Creative, Editorial, and Web teams to align messaging and execute integrated AI search strategies.
• Integrate AI into Search Workflows: Strategically utilize AI tools, prompts, and automated workflows (e.g., Claude, Gemini, Python scripts) to accelerate target discovery, sentiment categorization, and performance reporting while maintaining strict standards of human oversight.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree with a focus in Marketing, Communications, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
• Minimum of 6 years of experience managing organic search (SEO), digital outreach, or content marketing strategies for multi-website portfolios, including a minimum of 1 year of direct, hands-on experience in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI search strategy.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional project workflows and executing off-page outreach campaigns.
• GEO & AI Search Mastery: Deep familiarity with the emerging landscape of generative search, Large Language Model (LLM) retrieval mechanics, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) concepts, and entity-based SEO frameworks.
• Foundational SEO & Content Strategy: Strong grounding in core organic search methodologies (including keyword research, search intent mapping, metadata, on-page optimizations, content marketing best practices, and internal link architecture) to ensure GEO campaigns align with traditional SEO goals.
• Systems and Analytics Toolsets: Advanced proficiency with enterprise search and AI tracking platforms, including Profound, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, and Looker Studio.
• Strategic Outreach & Publisher Pitching: Proven track record of securing brand mentions, guest contributions, and high-authority citations across industry publications, news outlets, and niche education portals.
• Communication & Problem Solving: Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, and critical thinking skills, with a proven ability to translate complex AI search concepts into actionable business priorities for cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the higher education or test prep/professional licensure industries.
• Functional understanding of core technical SEO elements (crawling infrastructure, JavaScript rendering, and structured data/JSON-LD schema).

Benefits

Beyond base salary, our comprehensive total rewards package includes:

• Remote work provides a flexible work/life balance
• Comprehensive Retirement Package automatically enrolled in The Company Contribution Plan (8-10% annual company contribution based on tenure)
• Our Gift of Knowledge Program provides tuition assistance and substantial discounts for our employees and close family members
• Comprehensive health benefits new hire eligibility starts on day1 of employment
• Generous Paid Time Off includes paid holidays, vacation, personal, sick paid time-off, plus one (1) volunteer day and one (1) diversity and inclusion day to participate and give back to our local communities

We are an equal opportunity employer and comply with all applicable federal and state wage laws.

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of age, race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, nationality or sex. We believe that diversity strengthens our organization, fuels innovation, and improves our ability to serve our students, customers, and communities.

Kaplan considers qualified applicants for employment even if applicants have an arrest or conviction in their background check records. Kaplan complies with related background check regulations, including but not limited to, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act. There are various positions where certain convictions may disqualify applicants, such as those positions requiring interaction with minors, financial records, or other sensitive and/or confidential information. Kaplan is a drug-free workplace and complies with applicable laws.

Kaplan, Inc. is a global educational services company, with about 10,000 employees and operations in 26 countries. We serve 1.2 million students each year and partner with about 4,000 educational institutions and 13,000 corporations across the world. Kaplan is the largest subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC). Across its 85-year history, first as a pioneer of the test prep industry, then as an early online education leader, and now as a global education provider, Kaplan has been recognized for expanding educational access and improving student outcomes through innovative uses of technology, instructional design, and learning science. We’ve been recognized as a Top Workplace for Innovators and Brands That Matter (Fast Company); and as one of America’s Top 100 employers (Forbes). Kaplan’s US-based businesses provide individuals, educational institutions, businesses and governments a broad array of services, supporting our students and partners to meet their diverse and evolving needs throughout their educational and professional journeys. Among the services provided are test preparation, coaching and advising, performance training, industry credentialing, and university support services, online enablement, analytics, and marketing. The test preparation and professional products are offered in the market under our brand names such as Kaplan, Kaplan Financial Education, Kaplan Schweser, PPI, College for Financial Planning, and Manhattan Prep. Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL, employees who support Kaplan’s North America division work primarily remotely across the US and in our corporate campus in Bengaluru, India.

Location Remote/Nationwide, USA Additional Locations Employee Type Employee Job Functional Area Marketing Business Unit 00091

For full-time positions, Kaplan has three Salary Grades. This position is Salary Grade B: $64,819 to $162,047. The specific compensation offered will be determined by a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s qualifications, relevant experience, education, skills, and market data.

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You can learn more about our full benefits package and total rewards philosophy here.