Senior Organic Search Strategist (Remote, £38-41k)

Ellipsis is emerging as a market leader in “GEO” for B2B technology companies. This is a high-impact, varied role in a fast-moving and ambitious agency. The transition to AI search has put a lot of the SEO industry on the back foot. Ellipsis has always been consultative/strategic in our approach; we started building AI search products in 2021 on GPT-2, and thus this has been a time for us to thrive. Today, we think we have a better understanding of AI search than almost anyone else. We have the tracking product (built in-house), the data (~25 million AI answers for analysis, with more tracked weekly), and the execution end-to-end from strategy, to writing, to in-house design, to optimization, and performance reporting.

As our newest Senior Organic Search Strategist, you will own the organic search strategy for your own portfolio of clients: deciding what work we do, when we do it, and why. You’ll be a strategic partner who understands each client’s goals, requirements, and position in the market, and who turns that understanding into a programme of work that our Content, Writing, and Design teams can execute -- and that actually helps the client win.

We have an increasingly varied (and growing) portfolio of clients, and are adding a second senior strategist to the team to support that growth, provide our sales team with more strategic support with prospective clients, and continue improving our understanding and execution of AI search strategy. It is an exciting time to join us.

What you’ll do

• The Senior Organic Search Strategist role is varied, fast-paced, and requires excellent strategic judgement. You’ll be responsible for a mixture of big-picture strategy across your client portfolio and hands-on strategic deliverables -- everything from minor content updates to full-site technical SEO audits -- giving you both the perspective to set direction and the depth to know exactly what it takes to execute it.
• The heart of this role is doing just that -- you’ll own the organic search strategy for a portfolio of clients, and shoulder the responsibility for ensuring we recommend and execute the right work, at the right time, for each of them.
• Our Content Managers own day-to-day client relationships and delivery, but you’ll join client calls alongside them to present strategy, explain performance, and make the case for a course of action. You’ll need to be confident building a clear, evidence-based argument, presenting it to multiple stakeholders, and handling challenge or pushback appropriately live on calls.

In practice, the role breaks down into five areas:

• Owning client strategy: You’ll plan -- and ensure we effectively execute -- GEO strategies for your portfolio of clients. This starts with deeply understanding each client: their goals, their requirements, their position in the market, and how we can help them win. From there, you’ll translate that understanding into a clear programme of work, brief it into our Content and Writing teams, and keep it pointed at the outcomes the client actually cares about.
• Piloting our technology: Ellipsis has built its own proprietary technology for AI search, and our strategists are its primary pilots. You’ll use our tooling day-to-day to identify the right work for each client at the right time, and you’ll be expected to feed back on what works (and what doesn’t) so we can get better faster.
• Driving performance: You’ll be across performance for every client in your portfolio -- not just reporting on it, but proactively driving forward the optimizations that will improve it. When a page underperforms, a competitor moves, or an AI engine changes how it cites, you’ll be the first to spot it and the one with a plan for what we do next.
• Supporting our sales team: You’ll support our sales team with strategic data and analysis for prospective new clients. This means quickly grasping what a prospect needs and how we can deliver it, then providing the sales team with the information they need to present this in a compelling way.
• Hands-on strategic work: Alongside the big-picture strategy, you’ll carry out both routine and in-depth strategic work for your clients. Routine work includes minor content updates, analysis of existing pages, and handling ad-hoc queries and requests from clients; in-depth work includes full-site technical SEO audits, CRO audits, and similar.

At Ellipsis, we pride ourselves on continuous improvement. As a senior member of the Strategy team, you’ll be right at the heart of how we turn research into recommendations, and will have the opportunity to have a significant impact in shaping and improving our strategic playbook, our tooling, and our processes as we continue to grow.

If you’re obsessed with -- and skilled in -- working out what will actually move the needle for a client, and then making it happen, this could be a dream role for you. We’re looking for an experienced strategist who can own the direction of a client account and be trusted to make -- and defend -- the calls that go with it.

We’d expect at least 4-5 years of experience in SEO, organic search strategy, or a similar client-facing strategic role, ideally in an agency or consultancy environment. Beyond this, strong analytical skills, a critical eye for data and processes, and the confidence to make a clear recommendation from imperfect data are hard requirements. You’ll need to be confident in getting up to speed fast on unfamiliar B2B and SaaS topics, and in translating a client’s commercial goals into a programme of search work that will actually deliver against them.

Hands-on experience with technical SEO audits and CRO is a strong advantage. A working understanding of GEO -- and a genuine curiosity about how AI search actually works -- is expected at this level. But, as we’ve said, we think we currently have a stronger understanding of AI search than almost anyone else! So what we’re really looking for is somebody with a strong fundamental understanding of organic search, but also an eagerness to learn, a willingness to look at problems differently, and the ability to move quickly. Strong critical thinking is a must-have at Ellipsis!

If the data doesn’t support the strategy, or a client is asking for work that won’t move the needle, you’ll need to be confident in saying so -- and in proposing a better path. We are looking for candidates who can spot gaps or friction within our current processes and systems, and help drive forward improvements.

As a 100% remote team, we carefully balance collaboration with an environment that enables everyone to do their best work. You’ll communicate with the team through Basecamp (our project management software) and Google Meet, and with clients through Slack, Email, and video calls, so strong communication skills are critical. The majority of the team is located in Europe, and we have clients all over the world. You’ll thus be expected to regularly attend meetings between 9am–5pm GMT, with occasional calls outside these times.

Beyond the above, the ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate the following soft skills:

• Confident, evidence-led communicator: You can make a complex strategic case simply, to clients and colleagues alike, and hold your ground constructively when it’s challenged.
• Receptive to feedback with no ego and solutions-oriented: You can take a constructive critique, act on it, and get better.
• High level of self-awareness, a “people person”: You’ll be dealing with clients and members of the team on a daily basis, so this is an integral part of the role.
• Self-driven work ethic: You need to be self-motivated, proactive, and see projects through to completion.

Compensation

This is a full-time, 100% remote role. You’ll be a full team member, and involved in our team projects, work, and meetups. Competitive salary with pension benchmarked to UK rates and based on experience. £38-41k/year salary, depending on experience. 28 days of paid holiday. An additional 1 paid holiday day a year with each year of tenure, up to a maximum of 5 additional days. 4-day work week, once a month. Genuinely flexible working. Regular team retreats (~1 per year); last was Istanbul, previously in Edinburgh, Oxford, Madrid, and Budapest. Time and budget for learning and development. Enhanced maternity/paternity leave, and sick pay.