Principal Growth Manager - SEO/AEO

Job description

We’re seeking a Principal Growth Manager - SEO/AEO to lead our strategy for driving brand visibility and organic traffic growth via prominent, positive ranks in traditional search engines (Google, Bing) and AI-driven answer engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude). This role is measured primarily on monthly organic revenue targets followed by organic traffic growth and large language model mention/citation growth. The ideal candidate is an impact-driven leader with a consistent track record of delivering quantified organic growth in fintech or similar highly competitive industries. You have a proven track record of building long-term, resilient growth strategies that withstand major algorithm updates. You excel at optimizing content architectures and company data for AI search and naturally building brand authority across large language models at scale. Key Responsibilities: Lead SEO/AEO Strategy and Growth: Own the overarching organic discovery strategy to ensure our domains rank for brand, category, and competitor keywords across traditional SERPs and large language model platforms. Authority and Relevance: Develop actionable plans that continually ramps our brand/domain authority and relevance to ensure high organic visibility and growth rate relative to competition. Competitive Rank Analysis: Conduct ongoing analysis of top-ranking content and LLM-generated citations in our category and across algorithms to identify trends, white space, and sentiment Data & Discovery Architecture: Stay ahead of how search engines and AI models find information. Optimize site structures, schema, and API feeds to ensure maximum legibility for search and LLM web-crawlers. Optimization opportunities. Use this analysis to set direction and targets for high performance. Technical performance. Effectively partner our technical team to ensure consistently high user experience as measured by Core Web Vitals, EEAT, … Drive Execution and Cross-Functional Impact: Turn strategic ideas into written, actionable plans and effectively partner in-house teams to deliver with quality on a high cadence. Communication Skills: Ability to structure, create, and deliver a compelling, actionable plan to executive level audiences in addition to peers. Social Platform Strategy and Growth: Analyze winning formulas per platform and contribute strategies to win top placements on high-intent social platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Reddit). Ensure our brand dominates where the next generation of consumers go to search." Test & Optimize: Develop and run robust experiments to test optimization strategies (e.g., content formatting, entity relationship linking, structured data) and rapidly adapt based on performance. Measure & Reporting: Define success benchmarks and progressive milestones to get there. Partner Business Intelligence teams in defining tools, reporting progress, diagnosing challenges, and identifying opportunities via funnel data. Success Metrics: Revenue Generation: Consistently achieve monthly lead and organic revenue targets. Top Search & LLM Placements: Secure top-tier visibility for key brand and category search terms across traditional SERPs (rank/traffic) and LLM outputs (citations, share of voice). Share of Voice vs. Competitors: Outpace competitors in organic visibility on high-intent solution queries. Qualifications: 10+ years of SEO/Organic Growth experience in highly competitive, high-volume markets, with a proven focus on AEO/AI optimization over recent years. Proven success consistently driving double digit lead growth and digital brand authority via organic channels. Strong technical understanding of search algorithms, Knowledge Graphs, Core Web Vitals optimization, and scraping signals across major search and LLM platforms. Exceptional cross-functional executor capable of driving engineering and content pipelines to deliver rapid results. Analytical mindset with experience leveraging internal BI tools alongside third-party SEO and emerging AI attribution software. Strong business acumen with the ability to translate complex search technicalities into clear business impact for executive audiences. Solid executive presentation skills. Nice to Have: Social Search experience (optimizing for discovery on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram). Experience delivering highly differentiated content frameworks at scale in fintech, financial services, or another highly regulated industry. Strong background in continuous A/B testing and algorithmic experimentation. Ready to define the future of discoverability in fintech? Join us and take the lead on SEO/AEO where performance meets perception. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines. Achieve well-being with: 401 (k) with employer match Medical, dental, and vision with HSA and FSA options Competitive vacation and sick time off, as well as dedicated volunteer days Access to wellness support through Employee Assistance Program, physical and mental health wellness programs Pet care discounts for your furry family members Financial support in times of hardship with our Achieve Care Fund A safe place to connect and a commitment to diversity and inclusion through our six employee resource groups We are proudly offering hybrid options in the San Mateo, CA and Phoenix, AZ metro market. In other locations throughout the country, we offer work from home. Salary Range: $140,000 - $200,000 + bonus + benefits. This information represents the expected salary range for this role. Should we decide to make an offer for employment, we'll consider your location, experience, and other job-related factors. Join Achieve, change the future. At Achieve, we’re changing millions of lives. From the single parent trying to catch up on bills to the entrepreneur needing a loan for the next phase of growth, you’ll get to be a part of their journey to a better financial future. We’re proud to have over 3,000 employees in mostly hybrid and 100% remote roles across the United States with hubs in Arizona, California, and Texas. We are strategically growing our teams with more remote, work-from-home opportunities every day to better serve our members. A career at Achieve is more than a job—it’s a place where you can make a true impact, have a sense of belonging, establish a fulfilling career, and put your well-being first. Attention Agencies & Search Firms: We do not accept unsolicited candidate resumes or profiles. Please do not reach out to anyone within Achieve to market your services or candidates. All inquiries should be directed to Talent Acquisition only. We reserve the right to hire any candidates sent unsolicited and will not pay any fees without a contract signed by Achieve’s Talent Acquisition leader. #LI-KV1 Achieve is a leading digital personal finance company. We help everyday people move from struggling to thriving by providing innovative, personalized financial solutions. By leveraging proprietary data and analytics, our solutions are tailored for each step of our member's financial journey to include personal loans, home equity loans, debt consolidation, financial tools and education. Every day, we get to help our members move their finances forward with care, compassion, and empathetic touch. We put people first and treat them like humans, not account numbers. Since 2002, Achieve has grown into one of the largest private consumer fintech unicorns in the U.S., with over $40B in enrollments for our industry-leading, tech-enabled debt resolution services business, and over $11Bn in personal and home loans originations via our banking-as-a-service partner.