Regional SEO Lead

Job Description

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hey, g'day, mabuhay, kia ora, 你好, hallo, vítejte!

Thanks for stopping by. We know job hunting can be a little time-consuming and you're probably keen to find out what's on offer, so we'll get straight to the point.

Where and how you can work

This role is based in South Africa and is currently fully remote. We're open to talent across cities — from Johannesburg and Cape Town to Durban and beyond. At Canva, we trust our Canvanauts to choose where and how they work best, so long as it supports their team and mission.

What you’d be doing in this role

Canva’s SEO is world-class, and we’re looking for an experienced SEO leader to drive our next stage of growth across Africa. In this role, you’ll own the regional SEO strategy. With an initial focus on South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, you’ll be responsible for driving organic growth across key markets in the region. You’ll work closely with SEO specialists across localised languages and markets, as well as cross-functional product teams, all rallying together toward ambitious growth goals. You’ll report to the Africa Lead while working closely with the International SEO Lead and other Regional SEO Leads to ensure our global strategies are executed effectively.

As the Africa Regional SEO Lead, you will:

• Drive strategy development and implementation at the regional level through ownership of SEO growth strategies across Africa, aligning closely with global SEO strategy and wider stakeholder groups across Global Content and Discovery and Marketing.

• Build and lead SEO Country teams across the Africa Region, especially South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, providing guidance and direction to Content Specialists, and potentially Outreach Specialists to achieve SEO growth targets.

• Build relationships and identify areas for collaboration with key stakeholders in the region, including language managers, growth managers, and PR teams.

• Facilitate and build best practice workflows across teams within and outside the SEO group, aligning with key stakeholders.

• Work closely with other regional SEO leads, SEO group leads, SEO specialist teams, product managers, engineers, designers, and data analysts to drive alignment, scale and improve existing workflows and processes for automation and efficiency, and deliver impactful, growth-based projects.

• Support the growth of the team through hiring, onboarding, coaching and performance management of Africa SEO Country teams.

• Monitor and report on the Region and country-level SEO performance, metrics and output, focusing on South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

• Stay abreast of regional and industry trends, best practices, and algorithm changes to inform SEO strategies and identify growth opportunities.

• Foster a collaborative environment where team members can share insights and learnings to continuously improve the local SEO strategy

You're probably a match if

• You have in-house or agency experience with a proven track record of growing SEO in Africa.

• You can demonstrate success in developing and executing SEO strategies in international LOTE (Languages Other Than English) markets that have been the primary driver of business growth, such as Afrikaans and Zulu, Swahili, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Xhosa, to mention a few.

• You have a deep knowledge in all aspects of SEO, including content strategies, technical audits, and link building.

• You have hands-on experience with SEO and web analytics tools such as Google Analytics, Mode, Looker, Search Console, SEMRush, Ahrefs, Dragon Metrics, Screaming Frog, and DeepCrawl.

• You possess strong analytical skills and comfort in using data to guide decision-making, with experience in tracking and reporting on SEO performance metrics and using these insights to inform strategies and tactics.

• You are comfortable working in cross-functional teams in a fast-paced environment and ability to build relationships and collaborate with key stakeholders.

• You can showcase experience in scaling and improving workflows and processes, with a focus on automation and efficiency.

• You are proficient in Afrikaans or Zulu; however, business-level English is critical

#LI-remote #LI-JRW

About the team

The international SEO team is responsible for improving the SEO performance of logged-out pages across the Canva website. Our mission in SEO is to empower every user in the world to discover Canva.

What's in it for you?

Achieving our crazy big goals motivates us to work hard - and we do - but you'll experience lots of moments of magic, connectivity and fun woven throughout life at Canva, too. We also offer a range of benefits to set you up for every success in and outside of work.

Here's a taste of what's on offer:

• Equity packages - we want our success to be yours too

• Inclusive parental leave policy that supports all parents & carers

• An annual Vibe & Thrive allowance to support your wellbeing, social connection, office setup & more

• Flexible leave options that empower you to be a force for good, take time to recharge and supports you personally

Check out lifeatcanva.com for more info.

Other stuff to know

We make hiring decisions based on your experience, skills and passion, as well as how you can enhance Canva and our culture. When you apply, please tell us the pronouns you use and any reasonable adjustments you may need during the interview process.

We celebrate all types of skills and backgrounds at Canva so even if you don’t feel like your skills quite match what’s listed above, we still want to hear from you!

Please note that interviews are conducted virtually.