Enterprise Search Engineer
Anticipated Duration: 6 months
Duration of Potential Extension: 6 months
The successful candidate will be working seven (7) hours per day, five (5) days per week based on normal working Business Hours.
Location: Metro Hall located at 55 John Street in Toronto, ON_ Hybrid (3 days onsite/week)
Job Description:
- Supporting the assessment, enhancement, and optimization of search functionality to improve information discovery, navigation, and user experience across digital platforms.
- Collaborating with business, communications, content, and technical teams to identify search-related challenges, gather requirements, and recommend solutions that align with organizational objectives.
- Supporting the modernization of the Intranet search environment, including the evaluation, upgrade, and optimization of SearchBlox and related technologies to address longstanding employee concerns regarding search effectiveness and accessibility.
- Analyzing employee feedback, user behavior, and search analytics to identify opportunities for improving content discoverability and overall employee experience.
- Supporting the development and implementation of search standards, best practices, metadata strategies, taxonomy improvements, and content optimization approaches to improve search relevance and accuracy.
- Assisting with the modernization of Toronto.ca by improving website search, navigation, and information architecture to better meet the needs of residents, businesses, visitors, and other users. Conducting user research, usability reviews, and search performance analysis to identify barriers to accessing information and recommend improvements based on industry best practices and user-centered design principles.
- Supporting the enhancement of search experiences across a large and complex web environment consisting of thousands of webpages, programs, and services.
- Working closely with technical teams, vendors, and stakeholders to support search-related upgrades, testing, implementation activities, and ongoing maintenance.
Qualifications
- Extensive experience in configuring SearchBlox collections, implementing structured data (like JSON-LD), optimizing content with meaningful titles, metadata, and descriptions, using SearchBlox's analytics tools for monitoring performance, and applying general SEO best practices such as keyword research, on-page optimization, and link building.
- In-depth knowledge of WordPress SEO, including content optimization, plugin configuration (e.g., Yoast, RankMath), resolving crawl issues, and enhancing technical SEO for WordPress-based websites.
- Demonstrated expertise in optimizing SPAs for search visibility, including JavaScript SEO, dynamic rendering, pre-rendering strategies, and improving indexing of dynamic content.
- Strong technical SEO skills, including site architecture design, structured data/schema markup, mobile SEO, canonicalization, crawl budget optimization, and resolving rendering and indexing issues.
- Proficient in scripting and automation (e.g., Python, Bash, or JavaScript), and experienced using tools like cURL to interact with APIs, automate SEO diagnostics, and manage large-scale search data workflows.
- Strong analytical capabilities, with experience using SEO tools and analytics platforms (e.g., Google Search Console, GA4, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog) to identify opportunities, monitor KPIs, and drive continuous SEO improvements.
- Effective collaborator and communicator, able to work with cross-functional teams (content, operations, development), articulate SEO strategy to non technical stakeholders, and provide technical leadership and direction for SEO implementation.
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent experience, with the ability to guide strategic SEO initiatives and ensure alignment with business and technical goals.
