Associate Director of SEO

—What You’ll Do—

• Leadership: Partner with the Senior Director of SEO as the second-in-command leader of Silverback’s SEO department, helping set direction, priorities, and standards for the team.
• Coaching & People Management: Manage and support an industry-best organic search team, including direct oversight of 1–3 SEO Account Managers. Proactively identify coaching & upskilling opportunities, and deliver timely, candid, constructive feedback to your team.
• Client Ownership: Stay hands-on in client delivery by owning a small (2-3 accounts) portfolio of some of the agency’s key organic search clients, leading day-to-day strategy and relationship management.
• Content-Focused: Use your robust content background to streamline and modernize Silverback’s Content product and processes, bringing stronger structure, consistency, and scalability to content strategy work
• SEO Product Innovation: Roll up your sleeves and lead the charge in collaboration with the Senior Director of SEO on SEO product innovation. Help us create & deliver SEO products and services that are measurable, reliable, and impactful in the “modern era” of search engines & user behavior.
• SEO Process Automation: Implement efficiency improvements across the SEO team by identifying & building automation opportunities/workflows — without sacrificing product quality.
• Well-Rounded Marketing Expertise: While you have a background in SEO & Content, you flex broader marketing chops to more effectively understand all the pieces of a puzzle in clients’ marketing strategies.
• Focus on Impact: Directly tie your work (and your team’s work!) back to revenue & business impact for your clients. Deprioritize “vanity metrics” and focus on real results.
• AIO / GEO Enablement: Drive the evolution of the agency’s approach to AIO / GEO, translating changes in search engines & user behavior into practical strategy, process, and client value.
• Initiative & Ownership: Operate as a self-motivated, trailblazing leader who identifies opportunities, pushes work forward, and elevates the team without needing heavy direction.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with internal teammates across measurement, paid media, and creative to bring strategies for multi-service clients to life.

—What You’ll Need to Succeed—

• Agency Background: You must have previous experience/tenure at an agency with a performance marketing focus. (While in-house experience is always welcome, qualified candidates for this role need to have prior agency experience and be eager to participate & lead in a fast-paced agency environment!)
• Years of Experience: Although skills alignment is more important than years of experience for this role, we’re requiring all candidates to have at least 4 years of marketing experience in order to be considered.
• People Management Experience: Qualified candidates for this role will have at least 1 year of people management experience under their belt, and a proven track record of managing, coaching, and developing great talent.
• Deep Content Expertise: Proven experience leading content strategy for SEO, including topic planning, keyword-to-intent mapping, content briefs, and performance-driven optimisation. Ideally, you’ve built or optimized content processes for others to follow before.
• AI Search Testing & Optimization: You have hands-on experience optimizing for AI search (not theoretical; actual tests). You don’t have all the answers — nobody does! — but you’re excited to test, experiment, and figure it out.
• Client-Facing Comfortability: This role is not a good fit for someone who doesn’t want to talk directly to clients. You must be comfortable building rapport, establishing expertise / credibility, and serving as the face of the SEO engagement with your assigned clients, as well as serving as a point of escalation for your direct reports’ clients.
• “Get Sh*t Done” Mentality: You’d rather take a big swing and miss than sit around twiddling your thumbs. You’re energized by & thrive in an environment where no two days are the same, and results are king.
• Independence & Reliability: Because you’ll be a leader within the department (and within the company as a whole!), we’re looking for people who pride themselves on a driving, results-oriented, independent work style — and who we know we can count on to produce results.
• Business Acumen: Being able to build & execute SEO strategies across multiple industries is crucial, but your ability to tie SEO wins to a measurable impact on the clients’ business, bottom line, etc is what will make you a superstar.

—Why Silverback?—

Silverback isn’t for everybody. If you’re an A player, you will get paid more, learn more and grow faster with support from a smart and fun team. If you’re a B player, you will be miserable.

• Work with the A team: We are ruthless about putting the best possible team on the field.
• Make an impact: We’re a small agency. Everybody has the opportunity to drive change and impact.
• Get paid: We hire the best and pay them generously.
• Do cool sh*t: From media to SEO to measurement, learn the cutting edge of what works.

—Benefits & Perks—

• Unlimited PTO
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans
• Monthly Team Events and a fun, casual, inclusive company culture
• Company-paid ClassPass membership
• 12 weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Summer Fridays
• 401(k) with Employer Match