Director, SEO/AEO/GEO Strategy and Performance

About Risepoint

Risepoint is an education technology company providing world-class support and trusted expertise to over 100 universities and colleges. We help regional universities develop and grow high-ROI, workforce-focused online degree programs in critical areas like nursing, teaching, business, and public service. Risepoint is dedicated to increasing access to affordable education, enabling more students, especially working adults, to advance their careers and meet evolving employer and community needs.

The Digital Experience Team

The Digital Experience team at Risepoint is responsible for driving growth by optimizing partner microsites and landing pages across our extensive portfolio. We create, manage, and deliver best-in-class web experiences across thousands of pages to measurably impact user engagement and business outcomes for our university partners. Our team combines expertise in Organic Search, UX, CRO, and personalization to ensure prospective students easily find relevant programs and take the next step in their educational journey. We leverage SEO (Search Engine Optimization), AEO (AI Engine Optimization), and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to maximize discoverability, engagement, and organic conversions across hundreds of partner microsites and verticals. We collaborate cross-functionally to optimize conversion and usability while aligning strongly with business priorities.

Job Summary: Director, SEO/AEO/GEO Strategy and Performance

As the Director, SEO/AEO/GEO Strategy and Performance, you will lead and operationalize Risepoint’s organic growth strategy across 100+ university partner websites. Reporting to the Sr. Director of SEO/AEO, you will drive execution and innovation, ensuring our partner sites achieve superior discoverability and dominate emerging search and generative experiences. This role is critical for delivering measurable increases in organic visibility, traffic, and leads.

This leadership position involves translating enterprise search strategy into actionable plans and scalable frameworks. You will manage a team of SEO and content optimization specialists, working closely with UX, CRO, Content, and Analytics teams to build sites optimized for performance and visibility across both traditional search and AI-driven ecosystems. You will support the development of scalable frameworks, processes, and AI-driven workflows that transform how SEO is executed and measured at an enterprise scale. Partnering with the AI Enablement team, you will integrate AI into keyword research, technical audits, content analysis, and performance forecasting, reimagining SEO operations.

The ideal candidate possesses a deep understanding of organic performance in multi-site environments, strong experience with AI-driven search and generative engine optimization, hands-on experience using AI for search optimization and analysis, and a proven track record of delivering results through scalable processes, collaboration, and data-driven optimization.

Key Duties And Responsibilities

• Organic Growth Strategy Execution: Partner with the Sr. Director of SEO/AEO to operationalize and implement enterprise organic search strategies across partner websites, ensuring alignment with business goals and organic performance KPIs.
• Performance Leadership: Build and manage frameworks to measure, report, and improve organic performance across hundreds of partner domains. Translate performance insights into actionable strategies that drive growth in organic traffic, discoverability, and lead generation.
• AI and Generative Search (AEO/GEO): Lead initiatives to optimize content and site experiences for AI overviews, large language models, and generative search platforms. Develop playbooks and training to help teams adapt to the evolving AI-driven search landscape.
• Technical SEO Excellence: Ensure strong site architecture, clean data structure, schema markup, and Core Web Vitals optimization across CMS and DXP platforms. Partner with Dev and Analytics teams to scale technical best practices.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate with Content, UX, CRO, and Analytics teams to ensure site experiences are optimized for visibility, engagement, and conversion. Partner with Paid Media to balance organic and paid strategies for optimal performance.
• Innovation and Enablement: Identify and test new tools, AI capabilities, and automation techniques that improve efficiency and performance across organic channels. Contribute to enterprise learning around SEO/AEO/GEO advancements. Leverage AI and automation to reimagine SEO operations and workflows, adopting AI-powered tools for keyword research, content clustering, technical audits, competitive analysis, and performance forecasting.
• Team Leadership: Manage and mentor SEO specialists and analysts, fostering a culture of experimentation, curiosity, and performance-driven collaboration.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree.
• MBA or related Master’s degree preferred.
• 8-10 years of SEO and organic performance optimization experience for enterprise or multi-site ecosystems.
• 4+ years of management or team lead experience.

Licenses & Certifications

• SEO, analytics, or digital marketing certifications (e.g., Google Analytics, SEMrush, BrightEdge, SEO Clarity, or equivalent).

Skills, Knowledge, & Abilities

• Expertise in enterprise SEO execution, site architecture optimization, and technical SEO implementation.
• Proficiency in AI-driven search (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).
• Experience using analytics, AI insights, and automation/AI to optimize large-scale, multi-brand web ecosystems.
• Demonstrated ability to drive measurable gains in organic traffic, conversion, and visibility, translating data into actionable insights.
• Proven experience using AI to improve SEO operations, including automating research, analysis, and reporting workflows.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, especially with executive stakeholders.
• Hands-on expertise with enterprise SEO platforms, analytics tools, and data visualization (e.g., GA4, BigQuery, Ahrefs, SEMrush, BrightEdge, SEO Clarity, Looker Studio).
• Experience collaborating cross-functionally with Content, UX, CRO, and MarTech teams.
• Experience in higher education, OPM, or similarly complex multi-brand environments.

Key skills/competency

• SEO Strategy
• AI Engine Optimization (AEO)
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
• Technical SEO
• Enterprise SEO
• Team Leadership
• Analytics (GA4, BigQuery)
• Data Visualization
• Cross-functional Collaboration
• AI/Automation in SEO