Director - Search Engine Optimization

Upwork ($UPWK) is the world’s work marketplace. We serve everyone from one-person startups to large, Fortune 100 enterprises with a powerful, trust-driven platform that enables companies and talent to work together in new ways that unlock their potential.

Last year, more than $3.8 billion of work was done through Upwork by skilled professionals who are gaining more control by finding work they are passionate about and innovating their careers.

We are looking for a Director of SEO to lead the strategy for the company’s organic growth. This role involves working closely with and influencing the people, processes, and technology that deliver on this strategic vision. It is an exciting opportunity for a seasoned SEO leader to drive the organic growth of a highly trafficked marketplace for clients and freelance talent.

Your Responsibilities:

• Accountable: Own organic performance on both sides of our Marketplace (Client and Talent) and be accountable for delivering impact against stated goals.

• Strategy: Develop and evolve an SEO strategy to meet and exceed near-term business targets, with a long-range perspective on how we keep steps ahead of the search landscape. Maintain our position in the SERP while also evaluating vectors of growth to further strengthen foundations that drive performance and a trajectory that supports business growth.

• Manage and Support Your Team: Mentor, and provide leadership, and functional guidance (technical and content) while also supporting content creators, web developers, and marketing teams across the org. Be both a coach and a player where required.

• Functional Excellence: Keep our sites and pages technically optimized for mobile users and search performance - including information architecture, schema management, semantic HTML, page speed, and other components of crawling and indexing performance.

• Partnership: Work with cross-functional stakeholders and teams across product, BI, engineering, design, editorial, and marketing to pursue SEO improvements with a keen eye on the user experience. Partner with the SEM team to develop a unified approach to for search in key categories where we want to grow, translating that into tactical activities for both SEO & SEM teams

• Research: Closely monitor the changing SERP landscape and competitor activity to help inform our roadmap and advance business strategies. This includes how AI is impacting user behavior and the search landscape.

• Always Be Testing: Test, innovate, and build solutions with our world-class digital marketing, data science, and big data talent.

• Be Data-Driven: Analyze organic search landscapes to find opportunities that drive valuable traffic and bottom-line value for the business in collaboration with our experience and business teams.

What it takes to catch our eye:

• 8+ years of experience working in SEO, preferably with high growth/large scale consumer sites & marketplace sites. 

• Proven track record of driving consistent year-on-year organic growth through sound strategies and expert use of data.

• Self-starter mentality and confidence in the face of ambiguity.

• Proven leader with a track record of growing and evolving a bench of great talent.

• A team player and collaborator who can work closely with product, engineering, and content teams to achieve desired outcomes.

• Expert in building systems and workflows across teams to maximize resource impact.

• Experienced at building and executing winning learning agendas and testing roadmaps.

• Experienced with landing page testing and on-site experimentation.

• Strong Analytical skills - proven ability to interpret data, analyze trends, and make data-driven decisions.

• Functional Expert at Google Search Console, SEO Clarity,  SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.

• Technical expertise with HTML, CSS, JS as well as analytical tools like Looker.

Come change how the world works.

At Upwork, you’ll shape talent solutions for how the world works today. We are a remote-first organization working together to create exciting remote work opportunities for a global community of professionals.  While we have physical offices in San Francisco and Chicago, currently we also support hiring of corporate full-time employees in 19 states in the United States. Please speak with a member of our recruitment team to determine whether you are located in a state in which we are hiring corporate full-time employees. 

Our vibrant culture is built on shared values and our mission to create economic opportunities so that people have better lives. We foster amazing teams, put our community first, and have a bias toward action. We encourage everyone to bring their whole selves to work and grow together through development opportunities, mentorship, and employee resource groups. And oh yeah, we've also got amazing benefits - including medical insurance for you and your family, unlimited PTO, 401(k) with matching, 12 weeks of paid parental leave, and a generous Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Check out our Life at Upwork page to learn more about our benefits and the employee experience.

Check out our Life at Upwork page to learn more about the employee experience.   

Upwork is proudly committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse and inclusive workforce. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we never discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.