Director, SEO

Key Responsibilities

• Define the SEO vision, multi-year roadmap, and annual operating plan in support of enterprise revenue and customer acquisition goals, including sales, service, and digital retail experiences.
• Shift the organization from keyword-centric SEO to intent- and topic-based strategies that align to end-to-end customer journeys and changing SERP and AI surfaces.
• Set clear KPIs and OKRs for organic performance (traffic, leads, calls, store visits, sales influence, revenue) and ensure alignment with overall performance marketing measurement.
• Champion SEO as a core growth lever across the organization, educating senior leaders and cross-functional partners on opportunities, trade-offs, and risks.
• Own enterprise SEO strategy across on-page, off-page, and technical pillars, ensuring that fundamentals (crawlability, indexation, site architecture, page speed, Core Web Vitals, structured data) are consistently strong across all sites.
• Develop a strategy for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO) so AutoNation content is eligible and frequently cited in AI overviews and assistant responses.
• Implement and scale E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) signals across content, authorship, and site architecture to protect and grow visibility in both traditional and generative search.
• Partner with content and product teams to create AI-friendly, structured, and synthesis-ready content (e.g., answer-first formats, FAQ/schema, entities, and topical hubs), especially for high-value categories and comparison journeys.
• Lead local SEO strategy for all AutoNation stores, including Google Business Profiles, Apple Maps, and other key local platforms, optimizing for both search and map-based discovery.
• Own business listings data strategy, including aggregators and citation management, to ensure accuracy, consistency, and scalability across 260+ locations.
• Develop playbooks and governance for store-level pages, service content, and local promotions that balance national standards with local relevance and compliance requirements.
• Collaborate with product and design to ensure a mobile-first, fast, and accessible user experience that aligns with search engine best practices and improves engagement, leads, and sales.
• Champion experimentation (A/B and multivariate testing) on SEO-influenced templates and content to systematically improve rankings and conversion performance.
• Lead technical SEO strategy in partnership with Product, Engineering, and external platform vendors, influencing roadmap prioritization for site architecture, templates, and platform capabilities.
• Oversee regular technical audits (crawl errors, redirects, sitemaps, index bloat, JavaScript rendering, site speed, Core Web Vital) and drive remediation at scale.
• Establish standards and governance for new site launches, migrations, redesigns, and experiments to protect and grow organic performance.
• Build and maintain SEO performance dashboards and reporting in partnership with Analytics, leveraging tools such as Google Analytics/GA4, GSC, log file analysis, and leading SEO platforms.
• Own SEO forecasting and scenario planning to inform annual planning, budget allocation, and leadership expectations.
• Quantify SEO's impact on leads, sales, and customer lifetime value using cohort, funnel, and attribution analysis, and identify new growth opportunities.
• Define guidelines for ethical and effective use of AI in SEO workflows (research, briefs, content at scale, internal linking, testing) while preserving content quality and brand voice.
• Evaluate and implement SEO and content tools (e.g., enterprise SEO platforms, crawling and log analysis tools, monitoring, and AI-assisted solutions) that improve efficiency and insight.
• Partner with legal and compliance teams to ensure that all content and experimentation adhere to regulatory, OEM, and brand standards.
• Lead, mentor, and develop an SEO team, fostering a culture of curiosity, testing, and continuous learning in a rapidly evolving landscape.
• Establish SEO governance, processes, and documentation to ensure quality and consistency across business units, regions, and partners.
• Manage SEO-specific agencies, consultants, and vendors, defining scopes, KPIs, and performance expectations, and ensuring strong alignment with internal stakeholders and strategy.

Minimum Qualifications

• 8–10+ years of progressive SEO experience, with at least 3–5 years in leadership roles managing teams and/or large-scale enterprise SEO programs.
• Deep expertise across technical, on-page, off-page, local, and content SEO, including experience with Core Web Vitals, structured data, log analysis, and large-scale site architectures.
• Strong understanding of AI-driven and generative search, E-E-A-T, and topical/intent-based strategies, with a track record of adapting programs to major algorithm and SERP changes.
• Proven ability to partner with product, engineering, analytics, and marketing teams to influence roadmaps and ship SEO-impacting improvements at scale.
• Advanced proficiency in SEO and analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics/GA4, Google Search Console, enterprise SEO platforms, crawling tools, BI/reporting tools).
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, including the ability to translate complex SEO concepts and data into actionable narratives for senior leadership.