Search Strategy Lead

Join one of the UK’s leading SEO and digital PR agencies at an exciting stage of growth, where you’ll plan the search strategies that help ambitious brands own their categories across traditional and AI search; and prove the commercial impact of the work we do.

We’re looking for a Search Strategy Lead to join Digitaloft’s strategy team.

This is a brand-new role, created to keep us – and our clients – at the forefront of search.

You’ll own the search strategy for a portfolio of ambitious brands, identifying where the biggest revenue opportunities are, briefing our delivery teams to bring your vision to life, and measuring the impact of the work we do.

Search visibility is no longer just ten blue links; it’s evolved beyond this to also include SERP features, third-party listings and roundups, and AI-generated answers; and you’ll be planning across all of it, including how digital PR influences what search engines and LLMs know about a brand and how it uses this to recommend them.

This is a role for someone who wants to demonstrate their experience by delivering outstanding, world-class search strategies. It’s a senior individual contributor role by design, where your influence comes from the quality of your thinking, not from managing people or accounts.

To be clear about what this role is, and isn’t…

This IS a strategy role: planning, direction, measurement, and continuous improvement, built on a clear hypothesis for everything we propose.

This is NOT a delivery or execution role, an account management role, a people management role, or a project management role. You’ll work closely with clients and delivery teams, but your job is the thinking, the direction, and the proof.

We’re looking for someone who…

• Has proven experience delivering search strategies with measurable impact on a business’s commercial bottom line. We’re big on revenue, not rankings, and you should be able to point to outcomes that prove it.
• Deeply understands how search visibility works today: beyond ten blue links, across SERP features, third-party pages, AI-generated answers and recommendations — and what influences visibility in each.
• Has a strong, well-informed view on where search is heading, as well as what’s working right now, and can bring clients and colleagues along with that thinking.
• Understands how to leverage digital PR to influence both traditional and AI search as a strategic lever, not a separate tactic.
• Can quickly understand a client’s business; their model, goals, priorities, and constraints, and translate that into a search strategy aligned with their commercial objectives.
• Leads with hypotheses: knowing what we expect our work to achieve, influence, or impact before we do it, then measuring whether it did.
• Has strong analytical skills, with experience designing testing methodologies, defining measurement frameworks, and interpreting performance data to prove impact.
• Can write clear, actionable briefs that delivery teams can implement without ambiguity.
• Has the credibility and communication skills to act as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders and internal teams alike.
• Stays genuinely ahead of developments across search, AI, and digital PR, and enjoys being the person others turn to for what’s coming next.

The key responsibilities and tasks of the role are…

• Build and own search strategies for a portfolio of clients, spanning traditional and AI search, anchored in each client’s commercial goals and priorities.
• Identify each client’s biggest growth priorities and their path to owning their priority categories in search; focusing on where the revenue opportunity is, not just where the traffic opportunity is.
• Create clear, actionable briefs for delivery teams to implement your strategic vision, providing guidance and context throughout.
• Ensure every block of work we propose carries a clear hypothesis: what we expect it to achieve, how it will influence performance, and how we’ll measure it.
• Propose and design testing methodologies to evaluate performance and prove the commercial impact of our work.
• Own the measurement of your strategies, feeding what we learn back into strategic planning; treating strategy as continuous improvement, not a static document.
• Act as a trusted advisor to clients and delivery teams on the evolving world of search, keeping everyone ahead of where it’s going.
• Give strategic direction across the agency, helping evolve our methodology and keeping Digitaloft at the forefront of search.

What we’ll offer you…

• Salary: Up to £50,000 per year, depending on experience.
• 28 days annual leave, plus bank holidays and a Christmas shutdown. With each completed year of service, your base entitlement will increase by 1 day, up to a maximum of 33 days.
• A £1,000 annual training budget to attend conferences and workshops or develop your skill set in another way.
• An agency-wide wellness programme, private health cash plan, and access to mental health first aider support.
• Encouragement and support to speak at industry events and write for leading publications.
• Opportunities to represent the agency at awards events across the globe.
• Flexible working, including remote, office-based (in Kendal or Manchester) or hybrid.
• An enhanced maternity and paternity package.
• The opportunity to work alongside an ambitious, supportive team that cares about doing great work and helping each other grow.

To apply…

If you think you have what it takes to join Digitaloft as our Search Strategy Lead, we’d love to hear from you.