SEO/AEO Lead

Job description

Our Mission and Opportunity Early education is one of the most important determinants of childhood outcomes, a critical support for working families, and a $175B market that remains underserved by modern technology. Brightwheel is the largest, fastest growing, and most loved platform in early ed, trusted by millions of educators and families every day. We are a three-time Cloud 100 company https://www.forbes.com/lists/cloud100/a, backed by top investors including Addition, Bessemer, Emerson Collective, Lowercase Capital, Notable Capital, and Mark Cuban. Our Team Our team is passionate, talented, and customer-focused. We embody our Leadership Principles https://mybrightwheel.com/about/ in our work and culture. We are a distributed team with remote employees across every US time zone, as well as select offices in the US and internationally. WHO YOU ARE We're looking for an experienced SEO Manager to own and scale our non-paid traffic and lead generation strategy full-time. This is a senior individual contributor role — you'll independently design and execute a full-stack SEO/GEO program at a time when we're scaling content production aggressively and navigating a rapidly evolving AI search landscape, from Google's core updates to the rise of ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI Overviews as primary discovery surfaces. This is a hands-on role. You will own SEO and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) strategy end-to-end — from technical audits and keyword architecture to large-scale AI-assisted content production, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and AI citation/visibility tracking — directly impacting our high-intent traffic and MQL targets. You are a systems thinker who understands how SEO fits into a broader demand generation engine, and who treats AI search visibility (citations, Share of Voice, Visibility Score) as seriously as traditional rankings. You are deeply analytical, highly adaptable, and comfortable operating in fast-moving, ambiguous environments. You monitor algorithm and AI search shifts closely, recalibrate quickly, and bring external best practices into the team. You have independently managed complex SEO programs without relying heavily on engineering or content teams to drive results, and you know how to balance aggressive content scale against content quality and E-E-A-T — you don't chase page-count vanity metrics at the expense of pipeline impact. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Own and execute SEO and GEO/AEO strategy across website and content channels, directly impacting high-intent traffic and MQL targets - Drive and manage large-scale content production (2K+ pages/month target) using AI-powered workflows, with a focus on high-intent audiences — ECE directors, franchise operators, and childcare providers - Build and optimize content hubs targeting high-value search categories (e.g., state compliance, childcare management, billing & payments), and run a content freshness/refresh program alongside net-new production - Own AI citation and visibility tracking (e.g., via Profound or similar platforms) across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other LLM surfaces — monitoring Visibility Score, Share of Voice, and citation volume/share by page and workstream, and benchmarking against competitors - Implement technical AEO foundations — structured data/schema markup, entity optimization, FAQ markup, llms.txt, and other machine-readability improvements — to increase citation likelihood in AI-generated answers - Design and optimize comparison, pricing, and decision-style content, and adapt landing experiences (e.g., homepage) as AI referral traffic patterns shift toward broader, top-of-funnel category queries - Monitor and adapt to major algorithm changes (Google core updates, AI search shifts from ChatGPT/Gemini) and recalibrate strategy and targets accordingly, including guarding against AI Overview cannibalization and content-farm/E-E-A-T risk as production scales - Independently lead cross-functional planning sessions with content, product, and analytics teams to align on traffic and conversion goals - Identify, scope, and champion new SEO/GEO/AEO opportunities — from keyword strategy and technical SEO to AI citation optimization — and drive from concept to launch - Build and present clear performance reporting and strategic recommendations to senior stakeholders, including recurring scorecard/MBR-style reviews connecting SEO/GEO work to pipeline and revenue - Coach and share best practices with internal team members on SEO and AI-search functional skills WHAT YOU'VE DONE - 5–8+ years of SEO experience, ideally in B2B SaaS or a high-growth consumer tech environment - Proven track record independently managing complex, end-to-end SEO programs with measurable impact on organic traffic and pipeline - Deep expertise in technical SEO, content strategy, and AEO/GEO (AI search/LLM citation optimization) - Hands-on experience with AI citation and visibility tracking tools (e.g., Profound, Ahrefs Brand Radar, or similar) and a clear point of view on Share of Voice, Visibility Score, and citation-share metrics - Experience implementing structured data/schema, entity optimization, and emerging machine-readability standards (e.g., llms.txt) to improve AI citation performance - Experience managing high-volume content production workflows, including AI-assisted content at scale, balanced against content freshness/refresh strategy and E-E-A-T/quality standards - Strong analytical skills — comfortable pulling and synthesizing data from GA4, Search Console, SEMrush/Ahrefs, Profound, and CRM to drive decisions - Demonstrated ability to independently structure strategic recommendations and present to senior leadership with minimal direction - Strong cross-functional collaborator — viewed as a thought partner by growth, product, and content peers - Demonstrated ability to work independently in a remote, full-time environment Brightwheel is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. Protecting Our Applicants: Please be aware of recruiting scams impersonating Brightwheel. All legitimate communications come from @mybrightwheel.com http://mybrightwheel.com addresses, and we never ask for payment or sensitive personal data as part of our hiring process. If you suspect fraudulent contact, reach out to security@mybrightwheel.com. Thank you for helping us keep our applicant community safe.