Senior SEO Strategist

At elk Marketing, we’re a fast-growing digital agency serving brands like HexClad, goodr, and Built Bar with sharp, high-performance SEO, Paid Search, and Paid Social strategies. We're looking for a strategic SEO leader who can influence agency direction, own enterprise client growth strategies, communicate effectively up and down the client chain of command, mentor other strategists, and help shape the future of SEO at elk Marketing. This role blends advanced SEO expertise with business consulting, technical leadership, and cross-functional collaboration to drive measurable growth for some of our largest clients.

This is a role for an experienced SEO professional who’s excited to lead strategic work, share ideas that push the department forward, and support the growth of teammates along the way. You’ll collaborate with Account Executives, Paid Media Strategists, Content Teams, and Development Teams to execute strategy and deliver performance-driven results.

What You’ll Do

• Onboard with our SEO team, tools, systems, and clients
• Get up to speed on the accounts you'll be supporting by reviewing existing strategies, campaign roadmaps, content calendars, and recent performance
• Shadow other SEO team members (Senior SEO Strategists and SEO Managers) and join client calls to understand our workflow, client needs, and cross-team dynamics
• Join internal SEO team syncs and begin 1:1s with your manager
• Own ongoing SEO strategy and reporting across your assigned client load
• Begin presenting performance insights and strategic roadmap updates in a way that feels authentic to your style
• Review SEO Specialist work for quality, consistency, and alignment with strategy
• Collaborate with SEO Managers to ensure specialty areas are accounted for within your strategy (content, technical, local- if applicable)
• Join company-wide internal team meetings such as All Hands and Team Syncs
• Lead SEO strategy and reporting across all assigned accounts with confidence
• Support roadmap planning, content calendar planning, and contribute to client QBRs alongside Account Executives and Strategists
• Be a resource for training others on SEO strategy, whether it’s mentoring a teammate, supporting an internal promotion, or helping onboard a new hire
• Start contributing to process improvements and documentation that strengthen the SEO department
• Serve as SEO Team Captain on one or more internal initiatives, such as tooling audits, reporting improvements, or documentation projects

Your Day-to-Day as a Senior SEO Strategist at elk Marketing:

• Lead keyword research, site audits, content strategy, and campaign planning across your assigned clients
• Develop multi-month strategic plans that demonstrate exceptional foresight & prioritization, ensuring elk & client teams are aligned and executing strategic implementation effectively & efficiently
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Account Executives, internal and/or external dev teams, and the technical SEO team to implement SEO recommendations and maintain site health
• Identify upsell opportunities alongside Account Executives
• Create and present performance reports leveraging first-party & third-party data sources to tell a cohesive story of performance, deliver insights to results, and schedule the appropriate actions to course-correct or accelerate growth.
• Provide input on site structure, redirects, schema, and performance-related issues, working closely with internal and client-side dev teams
• Spot trends across accounts, share learnings with the team, and recommend new tactics, tools, or testing strategies
• Lead complex technical initiatives including migrations, indexation strategy, and large-scale site architecture improvements

Additional Senior SEO Strategist Responsibilities:

• Serve as the executive SEO advisor and provide executive-level strategy during client planning and quarterly business reviews
• Lead training sessions on AI, GEO, Technical SEO, Off-page Authority Building, or Content Strategy
• Develop agency-wide SEO frameworks, processes, and best practices
• Mentor Strategists and Specialists while elevating the overall quality of SEO deliverables
• Partner with leadership on service development and innovation

You’re a Fit If You:

• Have 7+ years of experience in SEO, including agency or multi-client work, with at least 1+ year of deep SEO technical experience
• 3+ years leading strategy for enterprise or high-growth ecommerce brands
• Experience presenting to executive stakeholders
• Proven history mentoring team members
• Are excited by working directly with clients such as HexClad, Built Bar, and Taylor Made
• Naturally take initiative and enjoy mentoring others
• Think beyond execution and want to shape processes, tools, and workflows
• You bring a creative and critical approach to your SEO strategy
• You have an interest in ongoing education of our ever-changing field (GEO, AI Optimizations, LLM Optimizations)
• You’ve used Slack, Asana, Google Workspace (GSC, GA, GBP, GMC) SEMRush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, and any content optimization tool (SurferSEO, Frase, MarketMuse, etc.)
• Want to grow into a leadership position within a collaborative team

Nice to Have:

• Experience leading or contributing to training programs
• Curiosity around measurement, testing frameworks, and marketing analytics

Interview Process

• Recruiter Screen: A 30-minute call to go over compensation, benefits, elk Marketing, and the role
• Test Project: A take-home assessment where you get to show off your approach to SEO strategy.
• Panel Presentation Interview: A one-hour conversation with our Head of SEO or SEO Manager and a few elk teammates. You'll kick things off by presenting your test project to the team. Following the presentation, you can expect to engage in a deeper discussion about your experience, strategic vision, and career goals.
• One-on-One meeting with Department Head: Discuss the industry, share approaches & philosophies, gain additional clarity on the role, expectations, and values that have driven elk’s growth trajectory.