Director, SEO

Sprout Social is hiring a Director, SEO to join the Marketing team.

Why join Sprout’s Marketing team?

As a member of Sprout’s Marketing department, you’re an integral part of empowering and inspiring our customers and driving the growth of our business. As a true partner to Sales and Success, we are accountable to—and responsible for—driving significant revenue across new business acquisition and customer growth. Together, we make up our revenue organization where we lead our go-to-market strategy and establish our goals as one unified team. We put our customers at the center, we’re driven by results and we’re passionate about our impact on the overall strength and health of Sprout. As individuals, there’s no shortage of opportunities to learn and grow in your current role and beyond. Here, we want you to do your best work, be creative, take risks and make mistakes. You create your own path. 

What you’ll do

  • Develop and lead the successful execution of SEO strategy that drives top of funnel growth and positions Sprout as the category leader in social
  • Define and monitor key SEO and top of funnel metrics in order to identify opportunities for SEO strategy improvements across the website
  • Identify opportunities to improve SEO performance and operations as our marketing strategy evolves, including new tools, processes and external resources
  • Partner with key stakeholders to develop SEO initiatives that achieve cross-functional goals
  • Create a culture of innovation and learning on your team that engages our audience, influences collaborators and drives outsized performance
  • Hire, manage, and develop team members

What you’ll bring

Sprout is looking for an experienced, innovative and strategic Director, SEO to join the Performance Marketing team. This leader is responsible for developing and spearheading an SEO strategy that drives traffic, acquisition, and revenue. This is an opportunity to grow and manage an experienced SEO team and have a material impact on the vision for Sprout’s SEO strategy going forward.  

The minimum qualifications for this role include:

  • 10+ years of experience in SEO, digital marketing or relevant professional experience
  • 5+ years of experience managing, developing and growing a senior team
  • Proven ability to develop and execute SEO strategies with your direct team that improve rankings, drive traffic, and have a measurable impact on inbound growth (leads, revenue, etc.) 
  • Strong analytical skills, proficient in SEO and reporting tools (Conductor, Ahrefs, SEMRush, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Salesforce), and confident leveraging data to make decisions.

Preferred qualifications for this role include:

  • Experience working at a high-growth SaaS/technology company
  • Experience managing and providing career development for people managers and individual contributors
  • Experience leading multi-disciplinary projects, collaborating with stakeholders, getting buy-in and driving consensus
  • Experience innovating and going beyond traditional search engine optimization tactics to grow traffic

How you’ll grow

Within 1 month, you’ll plant your roots, as you:

  • Attend onboarding and get to know Sprout’s values, history and organization
  • Partner with the Director, Performance Marketing to set initial priorities and align on expectations of your role
  • Work with your SEO team to get on-boarded and understand past and present SEO performance initiatives and strategies
  • Get to know team members within Performance Marketing and Revenue Marketing
  • Familiarize yourself with Sprout’s marketing strategy, OKRs, Ideal Customer Profile and personas
  • Build your understanding of our marketing funnel, current website performance, and goals 
  • Participate in weekly stand ups and discuss the progress of current projects

Within 3 months, you’ll start hitting your stride as you:

  • Complete manager hand-offs for direct reports, begin discussing career goals and start leading SEO team rituals 
  • Start building relationships with content team and Director, Content to gain a clear understanding of the content development process at Sprout
  • Have a grasp on overall SEO performance and start to identify opportunities to improve on- and off-page SEO in the short- and long-term
  • Begin developing a high-level SEO strategy and growth roadmap with the support of the Director of Performance Marketing
  • Evaluate opportunities and gaps you see for our SEO strategy, operations and team
  • Lead day-to-day SEO strategy for your team. You’ll identify opportunities, develop plans, and begin executing against goals
  • Measure and report on performance of ongoing SEO initiatives

Within 6 months, you’ll be making a clear impact as you:

  • Establish, document, and socialize the process for SEO growth at Sprout
  • Develop short- and long-term SEO growth strategies to further improve technical and content performance across the website. 
  • Partner with the SEO team and Director, Performance Marketing to develop SEO strategy for 2H initiatives
  • Facilitate quarterly roadmap planning for your team and represent the plan to the rest of Sprout’s marketing teams, including executive leadership
  • Work to ensure project prioritization builds progress on larger, key initiatives while also delivering on quarterly incremental revenue goals
  • Partner with cross-functional teams to implement new initiatives. See a high impact project through from start-to-finish. You’ll assume ownership for the results of your team’s projects and how you learn from them
  • Regularly report on results and impact of ongoing SEO initiatives and optimizations
  • Implement new or improved tools and processes to enhance team effectiveness and employee experience
  • Develop a deep understanding of Sprout’s customer segments and how to attract these users through organic search
  • Work with team members to develop and progress toward career goals and identify growth opportunities
  • Build relationships with stakeholders outside of Marketing and Creative, getting to know the larger organization and building your internal network

Within 12 months, you’ll make this role your own by:

  • Owning your team’s performance against KPIs
  • Testing, learning, and applying new strategies and tactics to our SEO strategy
  • Understanding where to prioritize efforts to make the most impact in the marketing funnel
  • Developing and communicating a vision for the future of SEO at Sprout
  • Collaborating effectively across the organization to improve Sprout’s website experience as it relates to organic traffic
  • Leading the SEO team through annual planning
  • Identifying headcount, budget and resources needs to achieve strategic goals

Of course what is outlined above is the ideal timeline, but things may shift based on business needs and other projects and tasks could be added at the discretion of your manager.

Our Benefits Program

We’re proud to regularly be recognized for our team, product and culture. Our benefits program includes:

  • Insurance and benefit options that are built for both individuals and families
  • Progressive policies to support work/life balance, like our flexible paid time off and parental leave program 
  • High-quality and well-maintained equipment—your computer will never prevent you from doing your best
  • Wellness initiatives to ensure both health and mental well-being of our team
  • Ongoing education and development opportunities via our Grow@Sprout program and  employee-led diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
  • Growing corporate social responsibility program that is driven by the involvement and passion of our team members
  • Beautiful, convenient and state-of-the-art offices in Chicago’s Loop and downtown Seattle, for those who prefer an office setting

Whenever possible, Sprout wants to provide our team with the flexibility to work in the location that makes the most sense for them. Sprout maintains a remote workforce in many places in the United States. However, we are not set up in all states, so please look at the drop-down box in our application to see whether your state is listed. Few roles require an office setting. If your position requires a physical presence in a Sprout office, it will be evident in the job listing and your offer letter.

The base pay range for this role is $155,000.00 – $165,000.00 USD annually. Individual base pay is based on various factors, including relevant experience and skills, the responsibility of the role, and job duties/requirements. In addition to base pay, some Sales and Success roles can earn sales incentives. 

Sprout’s compensation ranges are intentionally broad to allow for our team members’ growth within their role. These ranges were determined by a market-based compensation approach; we used data from trusted third-party compensation sources to set equitable, consistent and competitive ranges. We also evaluate compensation bi-annually, identify any changes in the market and make adjustments to our ranges and existing employee compensation as needed.

Base pay is only one element of an employee’s total compensation at Sprout. Every Sprout team member has an opportunity to receive restricted stock units (RSUs) under Sprout’s equity plan. Employees (and their dependents) are covered by medical, dental, vision, basic life, accidental death, and dismemberment insurance, and Modern Health (a wellness benefit).  Employees are able to enroll in Sprout’s company’s 401k plan, in which Sprout will match 50% of your contributions up to 6% with a maximum contribution. Sprout offers “Flexible Paid Time Off” and ten paid holidays. We have outlined the various components to an employee’s full compensation package here to help you to understand our total rewards package. APPLY HERE