Search Engine Optimization Manager

Job Title: Generative Search & Reputation Manager

Client Location: London - hybrid

Starting: ASAP

Pay Comments: PAYE

Maximum Pay (per hour): £43.26

Hours: 40-hour week

Duration: 12 months

Job Description:

Our client is looking for an experienced SEO/AEO Manager to advance and expand client's Search and AEO capabilities within the Reputation & Research team. This is an emerging function - we have established a baseline strategy, performance infrastructure, and an operating model, and we are now looking for someone to meaningfully build on that foundation. There is significant room to shape how this capability develops, deepen our practice, and extend its impact across markets.

You will work at the intersection of search technology, strategic communications, and public affairs - a combination that requires both technical fluency and strong stakeholder instincts. You'll manage vendors and contractors, coordinate across cross-functional partners, and support multiple markets and workstreams simultaneously.

What you'll do

Planning and implementation

• Help plan and implement comprehensive SEO and AI Search strategies aligned with client's reputation, business, and public policy priorities.
• Identify priority topics, narratives, and search landscapes that matter most in key markets, including housing, short-term rental regulation, tourism, community/societal impact, and trust and safety.
• Stay current on AEO developments (generative search, AI Overviews, large language model citation patterns) and translate emerging trends into practical recommendations for owned, earned, and paid (e.g. SEM) strategies.

Performance monitoring and reporting

• Own the ongoing monitoring and refinement of Search and AEO performance infrastructure across relevant tools and platforms.
• Build and maintain regular performance reports for internal stakeholders, making complex data legible and actionable for non-technical audiences.
• Track content visibility, share of voice, and AEO citation patterns over time, identifying shifts that warrant strategic response.

Insights and guidance for local markets

• Serve as an internal consultant to stakeholders, providing data-driven guidance on:
• Content and messaging priorities for owned and earned channels.
• Audience targeting opportunities informed by search behaviour.
• Competitive landscape analysis — what narratives and sources dominate search results in a given market.
• AEO citation analysis — which voices and sources are being surfaced by AI tools when users ask questions relevant to client's policy issues.
• Translate local search data into insights that inform broader reputation, amplification (e.g. SEM), and communications strategies.

Vendor and contractor management

• Manage relationships with SEO and AEO vendors, paid media and creative agencies, and specialist contractors.
• Help define scopes of work, oversee quality and delivery, and evaluate vendor performance.

Cross-functional stakeholder management

• Build strong working relationships with Reputation, Comms, Growth Marketing, Business, and Public Policy teams.
• Project manage multiple workstreams simultaneously, maintaining clear timelines, deliverables, and communication with stakeholders.
• Represent the Search and AEO function in cross-functional planning processes when needed.

Skills

Required

• 5+ years of experience in SEO, with a track record of contributing to search performance in a multi-channel or multi-market environment.
• Hands-on proficiency with core search and website performance platforms, including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Tag Manager, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Conductor, Moz, or similar enterprise SEO tools.
• Experience with and working knowledge of AEO and the tools used to monitor and optimise for it — including platforms such as Profound, Conductor, or equivalent.
• Experience with and understanding of SEM, paid media, and its interplay with organic search.
• Strong analytical skills: comfortable working with performance data, identifying meaningful patterns, and presenting findings clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience working with external vendors, agencies, or contractors, including helping to define scope and manage delivery.
• Experience using AI tools for productivity, like Claude Co-work, Claude Code, Google Gemini, NotebookLM, or similar.
• Good project management instincts, with the ability to keep multiple workstreams moving across different teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain search concepts to policy and communications colleagues.

Preferred

• Experience working in public affairs, policy communications, corporate reputation, or a related field — tech or start-up experience a plus.
• Familiarity with the political and regulatory landscape around short-term rentals, housing, or the technology space.
• Experience supporting international or multi-market teams with localised search strategies.
• Background in competitive intelligence or media monitoring.

*This role is open for a limited time. Next steps will be shared with shortlisted candidates ASAP. Due to the high volume of applicants, we may be unable to reply to each applicant individually. Thank you for taking the time to apply.

Client Description:

Our Client is an American company that operates a global community of Hosts and travellers. From inviting three guests to a San Fran home in 2007 to now welcoming more than 1 billion guests arriving in 100,000 cities around the world, this organisation is driven by the idea that anyone can belong anywhere.

Aquent is dedicated to improving inclusivity & is proudly an equal opportunities employer. We encourage applications from under-represented groups & are committed to providing support to applicants with disabilities. We aim to provide reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, to those with a medical condition, disability or neurodivergence.