About Our Client:
Hiring for a Certified US-based Digital Marketing Agency, focused on maximizing your Marketing ROI.
Role Overview
The Senior Manager – Search Engine Marketing owns company's complete SEO and Paid Media functions, directly leading the SEO Manager and Ads Manager and overseeing the Specialists and Executives working under them.
This role requires strong and balanced command of both SEO and Paid Media. You should have enough technical and strategic depth to challenge either Manager, review strategies, identify gaps, spot mistakes, understand performance, and guide both departments toward better outcomes.
You are not expected to execute every task yourself. You are accountable for ensuring the right work is being done, correctly, on time, and to the standard our clients are paying for.
Non- Negotiable Requirements:
Key Responsibilities
- 1. SEO & Paid Media Leadership
- Own and lead company's complete SEO and Paid Media operational functions
- Directly manage, coach, and develop the SEO Manager and Ads Manager
- Ensure both Managers effectively manage workloads, deadlines, QA, team performance, and client deliverables
- Maintain visibility into the performance and operational health of both departments
- Identify technical, resource, process, leadership, and capability gaps before they affect clients
- Step into strategic or technical discussions when senior intervention is required without becoming the routine executor
- Build strong Managers and teams capable of operating reliably without constant senior-management intervention
- 2. Client Deliverables & Scope
- Ensure every SEO and Paid Media client receives everything they are paying company for — correctly, completely, and on time.
- Ensure every recurring deliverable has an owner, deadline, completion status, and QA mechanism
- Maintain visibility into agreed client packages and scopes
- Ensure monthly activities are properly planned instead of being pushed toward end-of-month execution
- Regularly audit accounts to confirm actual delivery matches contracted scope
- Identify missed, delayed, incomplete, or below-standard deliverables before they become client-facing issues
- Ensure scope and strategy changes are documented and communicated
- At any point, the department should be able to answer:
What was promised What was due Who owned it Was it completed Was it QA'd?
3. Search Strategy & Performance - Own overall Search strategy across SEO + Paid Media
- Ensure organic and paid teams share intelligence and do not operate in silos
- Guide strategy around search demand, keywords, intent, local visibility, GBP, LSA, paid search, competitors, CRO, lead quality, and AI Search
- Ensure Paid Search data informs SEO opportunities and SEO insights influence Paid Media strategy where relevant
- Maintain department-level visibility into core performance metrics
- Paid Media: CPL, conversion rate, lead volume/quality, budget utilization, ROAS/revenue metrics where applicable, tracking accuracy and campaign efficiency.
- SEO: organic visibility, qualified traffic, local/map visibility, rankings, GBP performance, technical health, organic leads/conversions and authority growth.
- Require Managers to explain:
What happened Why What did we learn What are we doing next?
4. Quality Control & Zero-Mistake Standards - Establish and enforce QA frameworks, SOPs, checklists, launch processes, and approval standards
- Ensure appropriate QA for campaigns, tracking, SEO implementations, optimizations, reporting, and high-risk changes
- Track preventable mistakes and perform root-cause analysis
- Fix the process or system behind recurring errors, rather than repeatedly correcting individual incidents
- Ensure learnings from mistakes and successful tests are incorporated into departmental processes
- Preventable client-facing errors, tracking accuracy, and QA compliance are already central expectations in the existing performance framework.
5. CSM & Cross-Functional Alignment - The Senior SEM Manager owns the SEO and Paid Media technical teams, not CSMs or Project/Delivery Managers.
- Keep CSMs proactively informed about performance, completed work, risks, delays, major optimizations, strategy changes, and relevant algorithm/platform developments
- Ensure CSMs have sufficient technical context to confidently communicate with clients
- Flag concerns before they become client escalations
- Participate in internal strategy meetings and occasionally join VIP client calls, QBRs, or escalations when senior Search expertise is required
- Coordinate with Web, Content, Creative, Automation, and other functions where Search outcomes depend on them
6. Reporting, Research & Innovation - Own the accuracy and quality of SEO and Paid Media reporting
- Ensure reports explain performance and outcomes, not simply activities completed
- Maintain strong awareness of Google Search updates, Ads changes, Local Search/GBP, LSA, Microsoft/Bing, AI Overviews, AI Search, competitor strategies, and emerging opportunities
- Translate important industry changes into clear departmental actions
- Drive appropriate use of AI and automation to improve research, QA, analysis, reporting, and productivity
- Convert successful approaches into repeatable playbooks and SOPs
Tools & Technical Knowledge
Strong familiarity with: - SEO: SEMrush, Ahrefs, GSC, Screaming Frog, GBP and Local Rank Tracking
- Paid: Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, LSA and relevant Paid Social platforms
- Analytics: GA4, GTM, Looker Studio and lead/call attribution platforms
- Operations: ClickUp or similar
- AI & Automation: Practical use for research, analysis, QA, reporting, and operational efficiency
Ideal Candidate - Commanding, confident, and mature leader
- Highly analytical and extremely attentive to detail
- Sets a high quality bar and doesn't accept "done" without knowing it was done correctly
- Can challenge experienced Managers without unnecessarily micromanaging
- Calm, logical, and decisive under pressure
- Proactively identifies problems before clients or leadership discover them
- Holds Managers and teams accountable for both quality and outcomes
- Looks for permanent solutions instead of repeatedly fixing the same problems
- Strong communicator across technical teams, CSMs, clients, and leadership
- Continuously learning and adapting as Search evolves
This Role Is Not for You If You - Are predominantly an Ads specialist with only surface-level SEO knowledge — or vice versa
- Prefer personally executing everything instead of developing Managers and systems
- Tolerate repeated mistakes, inconsistent QA, or missed deliverables
- Measure success through activity rather than client outcomes
- Need senior leadership to repeatedly identify problems for you
- Avoid difficult accountability conversations
Benefits
Market-competitive Salary,
Performance bonus
Health insurance
Paid Time off
Other Details:
Work Mode: Onsite - Full Time
Location: Lahore
Experience: 7- 8+ Years
Days: Monday to Friday
Timing: 5:00 PM - 2:00 AM PKT (Night Shift)
About HR Ways:
HR Ways is an award-winning Technical Recruitment Firm helping software houses and IT Product companies internationally and locally to find IT Talent. HR Ways is engaged by 300+ Employers worldwide, ranging from the world's biggest SaaS Companies to the most competitive Startups. We have entities in Dubai, Canada, the US, the UK, Pakistan, India, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Brazil, and other parts of the world. Join our WhatsApp Channel to stay updated, or visit to learn more.