SEO Director
Ready for a fresh challenge at an award-winning media agency that values your growth and innovative thinking? We're on the hunt for a
SEO Director
to join our 20+ strong media team in
Thirroul on the beautiful South Coast
. This role has genuine scope to shape how SEO and AI-driven search are delivered across the agency.
Why work at Connected?
* A genuinely rare opportunity to combine a coastal lifestyle in the Illawarra with a senior marketing role at one of Australia's leading independent media agencies.
* A competitive salary package and benefits (comparable to roles in Sydney).
* Ongoing investment in wellbeing, development and community, including events and activities, professional training, and charity programs.
* We get to work with some of Australia's top brands and marketing teams including Sanitarium, Canon, Australian Institute of Marketing, Aon Insurance.
Our team is built around our values: Performance, Energy, Integrity, Heart and Unexpected(ness).
As our SEO Director you will be responsible for:
Leading our SEO function, driving strategy, execution, and innovation while managing a small team. You'll ensure customer-first, best-in-class SEO strategies, integrate SEO into broader marketing efforts, and deliver measurable growth for clients.
We're looking for someone who is already deeply engaged in AEO and AI search - experimenting, validating and translating emerging tools and strategies into real commercial impact.
Key responsibilities:
* Own SEO/AEO performance for our agency and clients – develop and execute end-to-end SEO strategies and tactics to significantly scale organic growth.
* Identify opportunities for both short term gains and longer term growth for clients in a wide range of industries.
* Manage multiple SEO projects at once in a dynamic and fast paced environment – manage own time and team resources; plan and review effort v capacity in sprints.
* Manage and mentor a small team – mentoring, training, reviewing work, anticipate issues and mitigate risks.
* Create new systems and processes that leverage tools and AI to automate SEO tasks and projects including audits, keyword research, site crawls, backlink acquisition and their implementation plans.
* Lead ongoing innovation in SEO and AEO to ensure our clients stay ahead in AI-driven search visibility.
* Generously share knowledge with team mates and client partners.
The ideal candidate:
To thrive at Connected you'll need to live our values – operating with focus, care and an obsession with impact. This role is a true blend of strategy and execution – we are looking for someone who is able to see the big commercial picture while remaining hands-on in the detail.
* A bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
* 7 years+ of experience working on small and large websites within multiple verticals.
* A self-starter. Someone proactive who takes initiative when solving problems and finding new solutions.
* Comfortable owning performance outcomes and commercial impact, not just SEO deliverables.
* Expert level understanding of search engine algorithms and ranking factors.
* Experience in LLM-driven search and GEO, with the capability to evolve and scale AI-led search strategies.
* Deep, end-to-end SEO expertise across technical SEO, on-page and content optimisation, keyword strategy and site performance, with a strong understanding of how website architecture, CMS platforms and code impact search visibility.
* Strong grasp of the broader SEO ecosystem, including UX and core web metrics, local SEO, backlink strategy and authority building.
* Strong in tools including Screaming Frog, SEMRush, ahrefs, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Looker Studio.
* Highly organised, efficient and comfortable operating at pace.
* A strong communicator focused on impact, innovation and process efficiency.
* Agency experience is highly preferred.
* Open to Australian residents only.
If you're a strategic SEO leader eager to drive impact and lead a high-performing team, we'd love to hear from you.