AEO Specialist

We're looking for a hands\-on specialist to own AI search visibility and performance analytics for our organic and AI\-driven discovery programs. This is a hybrid role: half analytical (reporting, KPI tracking, performance insight) and half strategic (advising on insight\-based optimizations). This role will report into the Director of SEO \& AEO supporting our US Higher Education group. This role suits someone who wants deep technical and strategic exposure to the emerging AI\-search landscape – a strong track for someone early\-to\-mid career in SEO who wants to specialize in the AI\-search side of the discipline. **Responsibilities** -------------------- ### **AI Search \& Answer Engine Optimization (\~50%)** * Partner with Digital Solutions to implement and maintain structured data, schema markup, and entity modeling to support visibility across search engines, AI Overviews, and answer engines * Monitor citation presence, brand mentions and competitive share of voice across AI\-generated answers using platforms such as Athena * Conduct AI bot analysis – crawl behavior, retrieval patterns – to understand how LLMs access and use our content to recommend optimizations * Partner with Content Strategists to structure pages (FAQ schema, answer\-first formatting, topical clusters) for extractability by both traditional and generative search systems * Stay current on evolving AI search behavior and flag emerging platforms or ranking factors worth testing ### **Analytics \& Reporting (\~50%)** * Own day\-to\-day reporting across SEO, AEO, and AI\-visibility performance (organic traffic, rankings, citation share, LLM mention frequency) * Build and maintain dashboards using Adobe Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMRush, and Athena * Translate raw performance data into clear insight for cross\-functional stakeholders – not just "what happened" but "what to do about it" * Track KPIs tying organic/AI visibility to business outcomes (leads, program page conversions, enrollment funnel entry where attributable) * Partner with content agency to recommend structured tests as applicable Support quarterly and annual performance reviews with trend analysis, testing outcomes, and prioritized recommendations * **Qualifications** ------------------ * Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Data Analytics, Communications, or related field * 3–5 years of experience in SEO, analytics, or digital marketing performance roles * Working knowledge of structured data/schema markup (JSON\-LD preferred) and willingness to get hands\-on with implementation * Proficiency with Adobe Analytics, GA4 and Google Search Console required; experience with Semrush or similar platforms strongly preferred * Familiarity with AI\-visibility tools a plus – willingness to learn required * Comfortable working with data: building reports, spotting trends, communicating findings to non\-technical stakeholders Higher education or regulated\-industry marketing experience a plus, n