Employment Type—Full-time, 12-month maternity-leave contract

Future Opportunity—High probability of conversion to a permanent full-time role Experience Required—Minimum 5 years of agency SEO experience Work Environment—Hybrid, collaborative agency environment Salary—$70,000

Work Location & Hybrid Requirement

This is a hybrid Ottawa-based position. The successful candidate must work in our Ottawa office three days per week, with the remaining two days available for remote work. Applicants must currently reside in Ottawa or the surrounding area and be able to reliably commute to the office. This role is not available as a fully remote position, and applications requesting full-time remote work will not be considered.

Position Overview

Minimum 5 years of hands-on SEO experience within a digital marketing agency environment.

We are seeking an experienced, agency-trained SEO professional to lead the strategy and execution of client SEO programs during a 12-month maternity-leave contract. This is not a junior or primarily administrative role. The successful candidate will be a hands-on SEO expert who can independently diagnose performance issues, develop practical strategies, manage implementation across multiple accounts, and communicate clearly with clients and internal teams. The role also requires a strong understanding of how search is evolving through AI Overviews, large language models, answer engines, and generative search. You will help clients improve both traditional organic visibility and their discoverability, authority, and citation potential across platforms such as Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. Although the initial term is 12 months, this position is being hired with long-term growth in mind. There is a strong probability that the role will become permanent for a high-performing candidate who demonstrates strategic judgment, technical depth, strong project ownership, and a positive fit with the team and our clients.

Key Responsibilities

SEO Strategy & Performance Leadership

• Own the SEO strategy and day-to-day performance of a portfolio of client accounts across a range of industries.
• Conduct comprehensive SEO audits covering technical SEO, content, on-page optimization, authority, local search, competitive positioning, and conversion opportunities.
• Develop prioritized SEO roadmaps that connect recommendations to client objectives, measurable outcomes, available resources, and realistic timelines.
• Investigate ranking, traffic, visibility, indexing, and conversion issues; identify root causes and coordinate corrective action.
• Monitor performance trends and proactively flag risks, opportunities, and accounts requiring strategic intervention.

Technical & On-Page SEO

• Lead technical SEO analysis involving crawlability, indexation, site architecture, internal linking, redirects, canonicalization, Core Web Vitals, page experience, schema, and structured data.
• Provide clear implementation requirements to developers, content teams, account managers, and external partners, and validate that work has been completed correctly.
• Optimize page templates, metadata, headings, content structure, topical relevance, entity signals, and conversion paths.
• Use Google Search Console, GA4, AgencyAnalytics, rank-tracking platforms, crawling tools, and competitive research platforms to guide decisions.

AI SEO, GEO & Generative Search

• Develop and apply Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and AI-search strategies alongside traditional SEO.
• Structure content around entities, semantic relationships, user intent, evidence, expertise, and authority signals that improve machine understanding and citation potential.
• Assess how client brands are represented across AI-generated answers and identify opportunities to improve visibility, accuracy, trust, and share of voice.
• Use schema, expert content, source attribution, supporting evidence, and digital PR or authority-building tactics to strengthen eligibility for AI-generated responses.
• Use tools such as Claude and ChatGPT to accelerate research, analysis, quality assurance, and workflow efficiency without compromising accuracy or brand standards.

Content & Authority Development

• Guide keyword, topic, entity, and audience research to create content strategies that support organic growth and business objectives.
• Prepare clear briefs for writers and editors, review completed content for SEO quality, and ensure it meets search intent, E-E-A-T, brand, and conversion requirements.
• Support link acquisition, digital PR, citation development, local SEO, and other authority-building initiatives where appropriate.

Project, Team & Client Management

• Manage multiple concurrent SEO projects, priorities, dependencies, and deadlines using Teamwork or a comparable project-management platform.
• Coordinate work across account managers, content specialists, designers, developers, offshore resources, and external vendors.
• Participate in client onboarding, strategy meetings, performance reviews, and troubleshooting discussions.
• Explain technical and strategic findings in clear business language and provide practical recommendations that clients and internal stakeholders can act on.
• Maintain accurate task documentation, quality-control standards, and accountability for deliverables from planning through completion.

Website & WordPress Support

• Contribute SEO expertise to website redesigns, migrations, launches, and post-launch quality assurance.
• Work confidently within WordPress to review or implement common SEO, content, metadata, internal-linking, schema, redirect, and page-structure changes.
• Identify website-development risks that could affect rankings, traffic, usability, or measurement and ensure appropriate safeguards are in place.

Reporting & Continuous Improvement

• Interpret SEO, analytics, conversion, and campaign data to produce meaningful insights rather than surface-level reporting.
• Prepare concise performance summaries that explain what changed, why it matters, what is being done, and what should happen next.
• Stay current with search-engine changes, AI-search developments, industry standards, and emerging tools, and translate relevant developments into agency processes and client strategies.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of hands-on SEO experience within a digital marketing agency environment.
• Expert-level knowledge of technical SEO, on-page SEO, content strategy, keyword and entity research, internal linking, structured data, local SEO, authority development, and performance analysis.
• Demonstrated experience managing SEO strategy and execution across multiple client accounts simultaneously.
• Practical experience with AI SEO, GEO, AEO, generative search, AI Overviews, or optimization for large language model and answer-engine visibility.
• Strong project-management experience, including prioritization, resource coordination, quality control, documentation, and deadline management.
• Advanced working knowledge of Google Search Console, GA4, SEO crawling and auditing tools, rank-tracking platforms, and competitive research tools.
• Ability to independently diagnose complex SEO problems and translate analysis into prioritized, commercially sound recommendations.
• Exceptional professional fluency in written and spoken English is required, as English is the primary language used for client communication, strategy development, reporting, and internal collaboration.
• Strong attention to detail, sound judgment, personal accountability, and the ability to work effectively in a fast-moving agency environment.
• Current residence in Ottawa or the surrounding area, with the ability to work in the Ottawa office three mandatory days per week.
• Ability and willingness to work within the established hybrid model; full-time remote arrangements are not available for this role.

Highly Valued Assets

• Strong working knowledge of WordPress, including page editing, plugin environments, redirects, metadata, content structure, schema implementation, and SEO quality assurance.
• Strong working knowledge of French is a significant asset, particularly for supporting bilingual clients, reviewing French-language content, and collaborating on bilingual SEO strategies.
• Experience supporting website redesigns, migrations, staging environments, launch checklists, and post-launch SEO validation.
• Experience with AgencyAnalytics, Teamwork, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Looker Studio, or comparable platforms.
• Experience with local SEO, Google Business Profile optimization, digital PR, link acquisition, or conversion-rate optimization.
• Experience improving operational workflows through AI tools, automation, templates, or standardized quality-control processes.

What Success Looks Like

• Client SEO programs are strategically sound, well organized, and consistently moving forward.
• Performance risks are identified early, investigated thoroughly, and addressed with clear action plans.
• Technical, content, local, authority, and AI-search initiatives are prioritized according to expected business impact.
• Internal teams receive clear direction, and deliverables are completed accurately and on schedule.
• Clients understand the strategy, see the value of the work, and have confidence in the recommendations being made.
• Agency SEO processes, documentation, quality control, and AI-search capabilities continue to improve during the contract term.

Compensation & Employment Term

• Annual salary: $70,000.
• Full-time, 12-month contract covering a maternity leave.
• Hybrid schedule: three mandatory in-office days and two remote days per week. Ottawa-area applicants only; fully remote applications will not be considered.
• Strong probability of conversion to a permanent full-time position based on performance, organizational needs, and mutual fit.