Director, SEO

About the role

Global Marketing is seeking an experienced and highly analytical Director, SEO & AEO to lead the execution, performance, and continued evolution of Gartner’s search strategy. This role owns end-to-end SEO performance across Gartner’s digital ecosystem, leading a team of SEO associates focused on execution while setting strategy, scaling analytics, and driving measurable business impact. The Director will also establish and advance Gartner’s Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) capabilities, ensuring visibility across both traditional search engines and emerging AI-driven discovery platforms. This is a leadership role requiring strong operational rigor, technical depth, and the ability to connect SEO/AEO performance to enterprise business outcomes and executive priorities.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and scale a high-performing team of SEO/AEO associates responsible for day-to-day execution.
• Set priorities and oversee delivery of SEO/AEO initiatives across on-page, technical, and off-page workstreams in partnership with Global Marketing and key stakeholders.
• Influence product, IT, and content roadmaps to prioritize SEO/AEO impact and drive enterprise adoption, while serving as a senior subject matter expert advising stakeholders across the organization.
• Develop and deliver executive-level presentations on performance, insights, and strategic direction while translating complex concepts into clear recommendations.
• Define and lead Gartner’s SEO/AEO strategy aligned to business priorities and ownership of acquisition, pipeline, and business growth.
• Lead the adoption and scaling of AEO best practices and frameworks, optimizing for AI-driven discovery and evolving search behaviors.
• Identify and prioritize opportunities to increase search visibility, traffic quality, and conversion efficiency by strengthening Gartner’s topical authority and recognition.
• Build and scale SEO/AEO processes, frameworks, and governance across the enterprise.
• Lead complex, cross-functional SEO/AEO initiatives, including site architecture improvements, migrations, and platform changes.
• Own SEO measurement strategy, including reporting, dashboards, performance tracking, technology stack, and adoption of new tools or automations.
• Partner with analytics to ensure data accuracy, integrity, and scalability of measurement and translate data into actionable insights.
• Establish measurement frameworks for SEO and AEO, including emerging AI visibility metrics, and deliver regular reporting on performance.
• Drive a test-and-learn culture, implementing experimentation frameworks to validate and scale new SEO and AEO tactics.

Requirements

• 10+ years of SEO experience, with ownership of strategy, execution, and performance in enterprise environments.
• 5+ years of experience leading and developing high-performing SEO or digital marketing teams.
• Proven success driving measurable organic growth tied to business outcomes (e.g., traffic, conversion, pipeline, revenue).
• Deep expertise in technical SEO, search algorithms, and modern SERP and AI-driven search features.
• Experience with AEO/GEO concepts, including optimizing for AI-generated answers, conversational search, and entity-based discovery.
• Advanced analytical capabilities, with experience building measurement frameworks and delivering executive-level insights.
• Proficiency with SEO and analytics platforms (e.g., BrightEdge, Ahrefs, STAT, Google Search Console, GA4).
• Familiarity with HTML/CSS and technical SEO fundamentals, including site architecture and structured data.
• Strong leadership, communication, and influencing skills, with the ability to drive alignment across senior stakeholders.

Benefits

• Competitive salary.
• Generous paid time off policy.
• Charity match program.
• Medical, Dental & Vision Plans.
• Parental Leave.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
• 401K matching up to $7,200 per year.
• Opportunity to purchase company stock at a discount.
• Collaborative, team-oriented culture that embraces diversity.
• Professional development and unlimited growth opportunities.

Pay

A reasonable estimate of the base salary range for this role is $120,000 - $167,000 USD. Actual salaries may vary within the range based on factors including education, training, experience, professional achievement, business need, and location. In addition to base salary, employees will participate in either an annual bonus plan based on company and individual performance, or a role-based, uncapped sales incentive plan.