Search Lead
- Toronto, ON, Canada
Full-time
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Job details
- Job type
- Full-time
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- Posting language
- English
- Posted
Original job description
Agency
Critical Mass
Job Function
Strategy and Planning
Job Subfunction
Account Planning and Brand Planning
Job Description
The Role:
At Critical Mass, the Search Lead advances account- and practice-level priorities by leading data-driven Search strategy and delivery for a leading financial-services client. The role brings together search engine optimization (SEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), and AI Search to turn consumer intent, technical performance, content, brand signals, and competitive intelligence into prioritized roadmaps and measurable business outcomes. Reporting to the Search Director, the Search Lead partners closely with them to investigate, validate, and strengthen the overarching Search strategy, bringing forward alternative approaches and opportunities to amplify impact while leading day-to-day execution, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and team development.
You Will
Search Strategy and AI Discovery
To the extent permissible by local law, Omnicom’s policy requires employees to work in the office for a minimum of three days a week, unless additional in-office days are directed by their agency or manager.
Omnicom is committed to hiring and developing exceptional talent. We agree that talent is uniquely distributed, and we’re focused on developing inclusive teams that can bring the best solutions to everything we do. We strongly believe that celebrating what makes us different makes us better together. Join us - we look forward to getting to know you. We will process your personal data in accordance with our Recruitment Privacy Notice.
Link to Recruitment Privacy Notice: https://www.omc.com/privacy-notice/
, Toronto: $100,000-$130,000
Critical Mass
Job Function
Strategy and Planning
Job Subfunction
Account Planning and Brand Planning
Job Description
The Role:
At Critical Mass, the Search Lead advances account- and practice-level priorities by leading data-driven Search strategy and delivery for a leading financial-services client. The role brings together search engine optimization (SEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), and AI Search to turn consumer intent, technical performance, content, brand signals, and competitive intelligence into prioritized roadmaps and measurable business outcomes. Reporting to the Search Director, the Search Lead partners closely with them to investigate, validate, and strengthen the overarching Search strategy, bringing forward alternative approaches and opportunities to amplify impact while leading day-to-day execution, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and team development.
You Will
Search Strategy and AI Discovery
- Partner with the Search Director to investigate, validate, and refine integrated SEO/GEO/AI Search strategies, identifying alternative approaches and opportunities to amplify strategic impact while leading day-to-day execution, current-state assessments, strategic recommendations, and prioritized roadmaps.
- Direct AI brand and narrative audits to understand how a client’s brand, products, and services appear across major AI platforms, examining visibility, sentiment, citations, recommendation frequency, sources, and AI-generated narratives.
- Map search demand, consumer intent, and AI-assisted financial discovery journeys, identifying priority topics, conversational prompts, decision points, and content opportunities.
- Lead competitive and category benchmarking across search and AI environments, evaluating competitors, aggregators, and category leaders to uncover visibility gaps, whitespace opportunities, and narrative advantages.
- Develop an integrated brand ecosystem GEO strategy across owned, earned, and paid channels, aligning content, authority signals, partnerships, and brand narratives.
- Oversee technical SEO and AI-readiness assessments covering crawlability, indexability, rendering, semantic structure, schema markup, site architecture, internal linking, and content accessibility; prioritize barriers to discoverability and citation authority with technical teams.
- Guide content optimization strategies across product pages, FAQs, educational content, and supporting assets, emphasizing semantic clarity, embedding alignment, answer-first formats, relevant topic coverage, and discoverability in traditional and AI-generated results.
- Provide ongoing technical and content optimization recommendations and implementation support, informed by search behavior, major algorithm changes, and developments in large language models and AI discovery.
- Coordinate integrated SEO/SEM strategies and measurement to strengthen brand visibility throughout the funnel, improve efficiency, and connect organic, paid, and relevant social search opportunities.
- Define success metrics tied to client business objectives; develop holistic dashboards and interpret performance across traditional and AI search, including visibility, citations, competitive presence, and other relevant outcomes.
- Lead ongoing performance monitoring and quarterly SEO/GEO reporting, supported by monthly planning and status discussions that clarify priorities, progress, findings, next steps, and strategic opportunities.
- Facilitate recurring working sessions across content, paid media, social, PR, creative, analytics, technology, and partner agencies; establish aligned priorities, shared briefs, and coordinated execution.
- Deliver polished, insight-led reports, strategic points of view, and presentations for senior internal and client stakeholders, translating complex data and technical topics into actionable decisions.
- Lead and organize Search workstreams, translating project requirements into clear assignments and next steps; oversee quality, timelines, and consistency of client deliverables while keeping Search discipline and account leads informed.
- Manage and coach direct reports where assigned, proactively assess team needs, review and refine work and presentations, and support career development aligned with Critical Mass expectations.
- Advance Search practice capabilities through knowledge-sharing, cross-disciplinary education, strategic frameworks, tools, processes, and automation; support new business pitches, RFPs, and opportunities to expand existing client programs.
- Advanced understanding of Search strategy and SEO, including technical optimization, search-driven content strategy, consumer intent, competitive analysis, and the translation of insights into business priorities.
- Ability to lead GEO and AI Search strategy, including AI visibility and narrative analysis, prompt and journey research, AI-oriented technical and content assessments, and practical optimization recommendations.
- Strong analytical judgment and data storytelling skills, with the ability to establish success measures, uncover market and brand-level opportunities, and deliver clear recommendations to senior stakeholders.
- Advanced familiarity with first-party analytics and search platforms (such as Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Google Ads) and third-party research and auditing tools (such as BrightEdge, SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog).
- Advanced spreadsheet skills, including pivot tables, lookup functions, and large-dataset analysis; ability to use visualization and automation to improve analysis and reporting.
- Strong written and verbal communication, presentation, stakeholder-management, and facilitation skills, with the ability to refine team output and communicate technical concepts clearly.
- Demonstrated ability to lead and develop teams, collaborate across disciplines, solve complex business challenges, maintain high quality standards, and manage competing priorities.
- Breadth across Search specializations, including SEO/SEM integration and measurement; knowledge of social search optimization (such as YouTube SEO), data visualization, and automation is valuable.
- Ability to identify new strategic and process opportunities and contribute to client growth discussions, pitches, and new service development.
To the extent permissible by local law, Omnicom’s policy requires employees to work in the office for a minimum of three days a week, unless additional in-office days are directed by their agency or manager.
Omnicom is committed to hiring and developing exceptional talent. We agree that talent is uniquely distributed, and we’re focused on developing inclusive teams that can bring the best solutions to everything we do. We strongly believe that celebrating what makes us different makes us better together. Join us - we look forward to getting to know you. We will process your personal data in accordance with our Recruitment Privacy Notice.
Link to Recruitment Privacy Notice: https://www.omc.com/privacy-notice/
, Toronto: $100,000-$130,000
More about this job
Responsibilities
Lead integrated SEO, GEO, and AI Search strategy and execution for a financial-services client, including audits, research, optimization roadmaps, and performance measurement. Coordinate cross-functional delivery, advise senior client stakeholders, lead Search workstreams, and develop team capabilities and practice offerings.
Requirements
Requires advanced expertise in SEO strategy, technical optimization, search-driven content, consumer intent, competitive analysis, and emerging AI Search and GEO practices. Candidates should bring strong analytical, communication, presentation, stakeholder-management, and team-leadership skills, along with familiarity with analytics, search, and auditing platforms.
Skills
- Search Engine Optimization
- Generative Engine Optimization
- AI Search Strategy
- Technical SEO
- Content Strategy
- Search Engine Marketing
- Competitive Analysis
- Consumer Intent Research
- Analytics and Reporting
- Data Storytelling
- Stakeholder Management
- Team Leadership and Coaching
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Strategic Planning
- Spreadsheet Analysis
- Performance Measurement
Visa sponsorship
Not detected in the job text
Categories
- Marketing
- Management & Leadership
- Data & Analytics
- Consulting
Keywords
- SEO
- GEO
- AI Search
- Search Engine Marketing
- Technical SEO
- AI Brand Audits
- AI Visibility
- Consumer Intent
- Search Demand
- Competitive Benchmarking
- Content Optimization
- Schema Markup
- Crawlability
- Indexability
- Adobe Analytics
- Google Analytics
- Google Search Console
- Google Ads
- BrightEdge
- SEMrush
- Ahrefs
- Screaming Frog
- Large Language Models
- Performance Dashboards
- Data Visualization
- Automation
- Social Search
- YouTube SEO
- Financial Services
- Quarterly Reporting