Senior In-House SEO & Discovery Strategist

POSITION SUMMARY:

We are seeking a senior-level In-House SEO & Discovery Strategist who can operate equally well at the strategic and executional levels. This role is designed for a practitioner with a strong point of view on how modern discovery works across traditional SEO, AI-powered/AEO discovery, and social-led discovery, and who can confidently represent that thinking in new business pitches and senior client meetings.

At the same time, this is a hands-on role. The ideal candidate is comfortable writing schema, optimizing metadata, auditing technical foundations, and experimenting with AI-enabled workflows to scale and improve quality. This person will help define our long-term discovery roadmap while staying agile enough to adapt to shifting client needs, platforms, and technologies - without chasing every trend at the expense of traction and results.

This role is central to how we help clients win in an increasingly complex discovery landscape. You will shape not only how we execute SEO, but how we think about discovery as a whole - today and in the future.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategy & Leadership

• Serve as the senior SEO and discovery authority across the agency, shaping POVs for SEO, AEO, and social discovery.
• Lead discovery strategy development for key clients, ensuring recommendations are grounded in business objectives and measurable outcomes.
• Participate in new business pitches, contributing strategic narratives, audits, and forward-looking discovery frameworks.
• Represent the agency confidently in senior client meetings, translating complex discovery concepts into clear, actionable guidance.
• Balance innovation with discipline—helping clients invest in durable discovery initiatives rather than reactive trend-chasing.

Execution & Hands-On Optimization

• Own and execute core SEO fundamentals, including:
• Writing and optimizing meta titles, meta descriptions, and headers
• Developing and implementing schema markup
• Conducting technical SEO audits and collaborating on fixes
• Supporting content optimization and internal linking strategies
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI tools and workflows to support and scale SEO tasks while maintaining quality and governance.
• Perform ongoing performance analysis and diagnostics to understand what is driving (or limiting) discovery.

Modern Discovery & Emerging Technology

• Maintain a well-informed, opinionated view of how discovery is evolving across:

• Search engines and AI-driven answers (AEO)
• Social platforms as discovery engines
• Emerging search experiences and interfaces
• Evaluate and recommend emerging technologies, tools, and platforms that improve discovery performance or operational efficiency.
• Test and pilot new approaches responsibly, with clear success criteria and learning agendas.

Collaboration & Agility

• Partner closely with media, content, analytics, and technology teams to integrate discovery into broader marketing strategies.
• Adapt strategies to changing client priorities, organizational dynamics, and market conditions while maintaining consistency in execution.
• Establish repeatable processes and best practices that enable discovery initiatives to compound over time.

REQUIREMENTS:

• 7+ years of hands-on SEO experience, with increasing strategic responsibility.
• Demonstrated success leading SEO or discovery strategy for complex brands or organizations.
• Deep understanding of:
• Technical SEO fundamentals
• On-page optimization and schema
• Content-driven discovery
• The evolving role of AI in search and answers
• Experience presenting to senior stakeholders and participating in new business or pitch environments.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate a clear POV.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with major ad servers, tag managers, and verification tools.
• Familiarity with offline trafficking or cross-channel activation workflows.
• Experience documenting and scaling operational processes.
• Strategic thinker who is still willing to get hands-on.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and change, without losing focus or direction.
• Curious, pragmatic, and disciplined—excited by new ideas but grounded in results.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to explain technical QA or tracking issues to non-technical stakeholders.
• Collaborative partner who elevates teams and clients through clarity and confidence.

We are only looking for candidates in/around the Chicago Metro Area and do not offer relocation assistance.

WHY WORK AT NOVUS:

We Bring Brands To Where People Live Their Lives.

NOVUS is an independent local media planning and buying agency. We are focused on local media of all types including video, audio, OOH, digital, and print. We have carved out a unique position in the marketplace; with comprehensive data sets, proprietary tools and some of the best strategists in the industry, NOVUS builds and executes plans that achieve remarkable results.

NOVUS provides a collaborative work environment, with career advancement potential and offers an array of benefits as well as considerable time off allowances. Additionally, as a mid-sized agency, team members have direct exposure to senior management on a regular basis and they get the opportunity to work on a range of assignments with significant responsibilities. By joining one of the premier media companies in the industry, you'll be part of a team that is passionate, engaged, forward-thinking and seizing opportunities daily.

Position Salary

We are committed to providing salary ranges for all open positions. Please note that the specific compensation for this role will be determined based on your experience, qualifications, location, and internal equity considerations. The salary range for this position is: $90,000 - $120,000. This range reflects the base salary for this position.

NOVUS Benefits

NOVUS offers a full array of health care and wellness benefits, which currently includes medical, prescription, dental, vision, life and accidental death & dismemberment insurances, short and long-term disability, pre-tax flexible spending accounts, a health savings account, legal services, identity theft protection and an employee assistance program. Eligible employees are those that are full-time salaried or part-time salaried employees working 30 hours per week or more, as well as those whose eligibility is required by applicable state law. A group retirement savings plan is also available to all salaried employees. While the Company continually seeks to improve upon and add to its current benefits suite, it believes you will find the benefit programs as comprehensive as any in the industry.

A Word on Diversity

Novus Media is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against and applicant or employee of the Company, on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, marital or family status, age, gender identity or expression, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law. Our agency is committed to creating a workplace where every employee feels welcomed, respected, and valued. We embrace diversity in all its forms, and we strongly encourage people from a variety of backgrounds to apply.