Discoverability SEO Lead - AI in Bury

Established in 1981 with a single store in the Northwest of England, the JD Group is a leading omni‑channel retailer of Sports Fashion, Outdoors and Gyms. JD Sports Fashion Plc was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996 and has been a FTSE100 publicly quoted company since 2019. We want to be the leading global omnichannel retailer in the sports and outdoor industry.

Role Overview: As a JD Discoverability SEO Lead at JD PLC, you will manage the SEO Discoverability team, operating within a wider group SEO team, to maximise the contribution of JD earned content in influencing and/or driving customer engagement. This will include traditional off site SEO tasks such as outreach and Digital PR, maintaining long form content in our blogs, and helping to optimise other non‑transactional earned channels (e.g. YouTube, Tik Tok). In addition, you will manage a specialist team writing, curating and editing content to target emerging Large Language Models and AI technologies.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of content specialists and develop the team into a high performing unit.
• Identify, develop & implement strategies to grow the search visibility of JD owned and earned long form content in search.
• Develop strong relationships with department & channel Leads to ensure AI and off‑site SEO is front of mind.
• Liaise with Country level Managers, Execs and Copywriters to implement the AI and off‑site SEO strategy on a per country basis.
• Contribute to the group SEO leadership meetings & planning sessions.
• Manage third party agency relationships and work to maximise efficiency and effectiveness.
• Become an expert in how AI can influence search and wider performance marketing.
• Work with our Head of SEO, and other Senior SEO Managers, to implement best practice technical changes.
• Work with our content marketing, PR and Social Media teams to develop off‑page campaigns.
• Train & mentor junior staff.
• Create, track and report on campaigns and visibility to senior stakeholders.
• Consistently hit campaign KPIs.

Ideal Candidate:

• Strong knowledge of all aspects of SEO, including on‑page, technical & Digital PR.
• Strong knowledge of emerging AI technology and its impact on search.
• Strong marketing knowledge.
• Highly developed communication skills.
• Strong writer.
• Data‑driven and highly analytical.
• Experience using tools such as Search Console, Google Analytics, Ahrefs & Screaming Frog.
• Experience using AI monitoring tools such as Profound will be a plus.
• Passion for SEO, fashion & ecommerce.

Competencies & behaviours:

• Supporting & Co‑operating: Demonstrates an interest and understanding of others, adapts to the team, and builds team spirit.
• Interacting & presenting: Establishes good relationships with suppliers, agencies and staff.
• Writing & reporting: Writes clearly, succinctly and correctly.
• Learning and researching: Rapidly learns new tasks and quickly commits information to memory.
• Planning & Organising: Sets clearly defined objectives and plans activities well in advance.

We know our colleagues work tirelessly to make JD Sports the success it is today and in turn, we offer them some amazing benefits including staff discount on JD Group and other brands within the organisation and personal development opportunities to learn and develop at work.