SEO/AEO Lead

About this role:

• Type: Full-time

• Location: Remote (we're Europe based but work with global clients)

• Reports to: Co-founder

• Compensation: $50k - $110K USD (or EUR/GBP equivalent) base salary, DOE. Quarterly bonus available.

• Role title: SEO/AEO Lead

• Seniority: Team manager

About Discovered Labs

Discovered Labs is an SEO/AEO agency built by a Stanford rocket scientist turned AI researcher (Ben Moore) and demand gen marketer with experience scaling B2B SaaS companies to 8-figures in ARR (Liam Dunne).

We're a team of ML engineers, data scientists and senior marketers trusted by fast-growing B2B SaaS companies including Instantly, Granola and Composio to help generate leads and customers through Google and AI assistants like ChatGPT.

We do this through a mixture of content marketing, technical optimisations and off-site brand amplification (PR, backlinks, Reddit marketing).

View recent case studies at discoveredlabs.com/case-studies

High-level overview of our approach:

• AI-powered operations: Our ML team builds internal tools that remove repetitive work and give marketers more time for judgement and execution.

• Senior judgement: Experienced marketers set the strategy and quality bar; automation supports the work rather than replacing it.

• Full-stack execution: We work across content, technical SEO/AEO and off-site amplification to give clients better outcomes.

Note: If you want to stand out, please include a Loom video showing a tool, system or deliverable you've produced and are proud of. We'd love to see it!

This role

We’re hiring for a SEO/AEO Lead. You’ll line-manage our team of ~6 analysts and strategists, constantly raise the bar across client work and collaborate closely with product and engineering to turn client and market insights into better tools and workflows for the team.

You’ll be accountable for client health, making sure the department’s quarterly net revenue retention (NRR) goal is hit and coaching the team to become best-in-class marketers who are progressing in their careers.

This is not a typical management role where your value is measured by team meetings. It will be operationally intense: high context, high communication and the application of unreasonably high standards across everything we do for clients.

It is fully remote, ideally within +/-4 hours of GMT, though we can be flexible for the right person.

What you'll do

• Improve the delivery methodology. Identify better ways for us to find, diagnose and act on SEO/AEO performance opportunities that help clients win. Turn successful changes into playbooks and workflows that don’t rely on heroics.

• Set and maintain delivery standards. Improve how we structure deliverables, run QA, communicate with clients and collaborate as a team so clients receive a world-class experience and we maintain a culture of excellence.

• Coach and train the team weekly. Use structured work, call and communication reviews to give feedback, practise improvements and check that subsequent client work meets the standard.

• Manage performance and development. Run structured fortnightly 1:1s, quarterly reviews, and maintain individual development plans so team members are progressing in their careers and feel incentivised.

• Own NRR and client health. Report on retention, expansion and account health; spot risks early and work with strategists on save plans for red accounts.

• Build the talent bench and hire well. Build a pipeline of capable analysts and strategists for future capacity needs. Run structured assessments and interviews to evaluate ability and help close candidates.

• Build effective onboarding. Build and improve an onboarding curriculum so analysts and strategists reach our delivery standards faster.

• Sponsor product and workflow improvements. Work with product and engineering to build new tools and workflows that make your team more effective and gives clients unfair advantages.

The ideal person for this role

• You’ve led teams before. You know how to run performance reviews, handle hard conversations and get the most out of those who work with you.

• You can challenge a search strategy. You can judge whether a content plan targets the right clusters, a technical recommendation deserves priority or an AEO experiment will deliver the right commercial outcomes.

• You operate with radical candour. You proactively provide feedback and are comfortable having difficult conversations without being an asshole. People know where they stand with you.

• You are detail-oriented. You spot details that others miss and you unapologetically hold yourself and everyone around you to a high standard.

• You can diagnose the real problem. If a strategy is underperforming, you are able to quickly identify the issues and resolve it using data.

• You develop judgement in others. You can explain why a plan or deliverable falls short, give useful feedback and help the person produce better work next time.

• You think in systems. Disconnected work drives you crazy. You connect work into clear frameworks, shared definitions and standards.

Requirements

• Experience formally managing SEOs with evidence of improved performance, candid feedback and difficult people decisions.

• Strong practical SEO judgement across content, technical and off-page work.

• Evidence that your SEO decisions improved client business outcomes.

• Evidence of prioritising across client accounts or equivalent stakeholder portfolios when performance, retention risk and delivery capacity compete.

• Ability to define requirements and acceptance criteria for delivery improvements, and validate solutions with product or engineering.

• Excellent written and verbal English and availability for a working day that overlaps meaningfully with GMT.

This role is not for you if…

• You’re not exceptional at SEO. We believe great leaders must first be great operators.

• You’d rather operate in the shadows. This is a high-visibility role interacting with clients every day and collaborating with the team.

• You aren’t comfortable with data. We’re a deeply technical team who prefers data over opinions.

• You’d rather sit at 50,000 feet in diagrams and planning docs. You’ll be expected to also be in the weeds pushing work forward.

Culture fit

You'll thrive here if:

• You like small teams, direct feedback and a high degree of autonomy.

• You’re comfortable challenging others’ thinking and also having yourself challenged.

• You are comfortable making a recommendation and explaining the data and rationale behind it.

You won't thrive here if:

• You need heavy management or wait for perfect instructions.

• You rely on “that’s how it’s always been done” to defend an approach.

• You leave concerns unspoken because the conversation might be uncomfortable.

• You intend to view Discovered Labs as another client amongst other projects and clients.

What's in it for you

• Compensation: $50K to $110K USD (or EUR/GBP equivalent), DOE

• Fully remote: work from where you do your best work, with meaningful overlap with GMT.

• Progression: A clear path towards head of client delivery.

• Flexibility: You can have flexible working hours with the expectation of 40 hours of meaningful work per week.

• Paid leave

• Real autonomy: you will have a voice, be trusted to do your work and make improvements to our systems.

• A small, senior team: work directly with experienced operators, with direct feedback and quick decisions.

• Annual company off-site: We get together once a year at a nice destination to relax, reset and plan.

Interview Process:

• Async assessment (15 minutes)

• 30 minute call with founder

• 90 minute deep-dive into career history and work

• 3 hour paid assessment

• Reference checks with former peers and managers.

To apply:

Please complete the short form on the platform where you see this job ad. Be specific as possible when answering questions - we love detail.

Please do not use sloppy AI to auto-apply for this role. It’s obvious and will result in us not progressing with your application for this role and future roles.