Team Lead SEO

About the role

This is not a caretaker job — it is building a direction from zero. The company has monetized dating traffic since 2011, paid acquisition has long run like clockwork, yet SEO has never been a systematic direction here. You are the person who changes that: you choose which sites and GEOs to launch, hire the team, defend the budgets and own the outcome. What sets this apart from a typical SEO lead role is KPI depth: we measure the direction in paying users, not positions or sessions, because our BI shows the whole funnel from a SERP click to the rebill. You report to the Head of Media Buying.

In practice this cuts both ways: you will never have to justify SEO with abstractions — showing how many subscriptions the portfolio delivered last quarter is enough. But hiding behind a session-growth chart will not work either, because the buyers next to you have their traffic counted to the cent. It is a fair game with high stakes — exactly the environment where a strong lead grows fastest. You start with 1–2 specialists; copywriters, localizers and tech support are already in place.

What you will do

• Shape the portfolio strategy from scratch: how many sites, in which GEOs, with which clusters, launched in what order.
• Hire and develop SEO specialists — we pick the first 1–2 together, after that the team is yours.
• Install processes: sprints, recurring audits, reporting, quality standards for content and links.
• Defend a quarterly budget with numbers and run it: content, link building, domains, tooling.
• Hold KPIs all the way to paying users: organic traffic → registrations → subscriptions — per site, in BI dashboards.
• Balance portfolio risk: which sites we build white-hat for the long haul, where we test aggressive tactics — and what we lose if a bet fails.
• Partner with the tech lead (speed, indexation, infrastructure) and the creative team (content, localization).
• Present results and the next plan to the Head each quarter: what worked, what gets cut, what gets scaled.

What matters to us

Required:

• 3+ years of SEO in competitive niches, including 1+ year as a lead with real hiring and a real budget.
• Organic growth cases with numbers down to conversions and money — not Ahrefs screenshots.
• A track record of building processes: you have turned SEO chaos into a system before.
• Managing contractors and budgets: links, content, domains.
• English B1+.

Nice to have:

• Dating, gambling, or another vertical where the SERP is fought over with money.
• Sites taken from zero to payback.
• BI fluency: you pull your own numbers instead of waiting for a report.

What you get

• A rare shot: build a direction from zero inside a company that has monetized traffic for 15 years.
• Budget for a plan: defend it with numbers and it is yours, no approval labyrinth.
• A short chain of command: only the Head of Media Buying stands between you and a final decision.
• Infrastructure ready on day one: BI, tech, copywriters, localizers.
• Fully remote work and salary on a fixed date.

Growth track

Team Lead → Head of SEO running several teams as the portfolio scales. The direction you build is your strongest card in the next-level conversation. The year-one horizon: portfolio launched, a team running without micromanagement, first sites converting to paying users.

Compensation

$1,800–3,000 base + quarterly KPI bonuses. Payouts on a fixed date.

Process

30-min screening → interview with the Head → numbers-based portfolio strategy review → offer. Up to 10 business days.