Director, Digital Performance Marketing

A Turn/River portfolio company is seeking a strategic, data-driven Director of Digital Performance Marketing to lead the performance marketing strategy across SEO, SEM, CRO, and AI search — including Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and other AI/LLM-driven discovery channels. This role will own both earned and paid media performance, with a strong emphasis on organic search, paid search, and AI-powered answer engines (Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot) as core growth engines, while using modern conversion rate optimization techniques, tools, and strategies. As search shifts toward zero-click and AI-generated answers, the ideal candidate is a hands-on performance marketing leader who can build strategy, lead execution, optimize investment, and deliver measurable pipeline and revenue impact — regardless of where discovery happens.

The Director, Digital Performance Marketing will define and lead the digital acquisition strategy across key channels, with primary ownership of Paid Search, Organic Search, AI Search / Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and Conversion Optimization. This leader will be responsible for building a modern, full-funnel performance engine that competes for visibility not only in traditional search results but also in AI Overviews, chat-based answer engines, and other zero-click surfaces — increasing qualified traffic, improving conversion efficiency, and driving scalable growth across the business.

This role requires a strong operator who combines strategic thinking with analytical rigor, deep search and AI-search expertise, and the ability to lead cross-functional execution across content, web, analytics, creative, and campaign teams. The position is ideal for a performance marketer who is equally comfortable setting vision, managing large budgets, staying ahead of the fast-evolving AI search landscape, and getting into the details of optimization.

• Own the overall digital performance marketing strategy across SEO, SEM, AI search/AEO, display, and paid social, with SEO, SEM, and AI search serving as the primary focus areas.

• Build and evolve a comprehensive search strategy spanning technical SEO, on-page optimization, content-driven SEO, paid search campaign architecture, bidding strategy, keyword portfolio management, and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) tactics for AI Overviews and other LLM-powered answer engines.

• Lead full-funnel acquisition planning across TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU motions, ensuring channel investment aligns to business goals, audience intent, and conversion opportunities.

• Develop integrated channel strategies that connect earned and paid media to improve visibility, traffic quality, conversion rates, and pipeline generation.

• Drive a test-and-learn culture across messaging, targeting, bidding, landing pages, audience segmentation, and creative.

• Track the ongoing shift toward zero-click search and AI-generated answers, evolving channel strategy and success metrics to reflect how buyers now discover, evaluate, and engage with content across both traditional and AI-powered search experiences.

• Own the company’s AI search strategy, including Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), to maximize brand visibility, citation, and share of voice across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, and other LLM-powered answer engines.

• Build structured, entity-rich, machine-readable content — including schema markup, structured data, and clear source attribution — that increases the likelihood of being cited, quoted, or summarized in AI-generated answers.

• Define and track AI search performance using metrics such as citation rate, mention rate, prompt-level share of voice, sentiment, and AI-referral traffic, leveraging platforms such as Profound, AirOps, Otterly, and Peec AI.

• Partner with content, PR, and communications teams to strengthen the off-site presence that LLMs frequently draw on when generating answers, including review sites, forums, YouTube, third-party publications, and industry communities.

• Monitor evolving model behavior, crawler access (e.g., GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended), and platform updates across major AI search surfaces, continuously adapting strategy as AI search adoption grows and buyer behavior shifts toward zero-click experiences.

• Own the SEO roadmap across technical, content, and off-page initiatives, including site health, crawlability and AI-crawler accessibility (e.g., llms.txt, structured data, and access for bots such as GPTBot, PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended), indexation, internal linking, keyword strategy, content briefs, and authority-building efforts.

• Partner closely with content, web, and product marketing teams to build SEO programs that strengthen topic authority, improve rankings, and drive qualified organic growth.

• Monitor search trends, algorithm changes, and emerging AI search behaviors — including the growth of AI Overviews and zero-click search — to continuously adapt strategy and maintain competitive advantage.

• Establish clear SEO reporting and forecasting to show impact on traffic, conversions, pipeline, and revenue contribution.

• Lead paid search strategy and execution across platforms such as Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, including account structure, keyword expansion, bid strategy, ad copy testing, budget allocation, and performance optimization.

• Own the broader paid media mix across display and paid social, ensuring channel roles are clearly defined and performance is measured against pipeline and efficiency targets.

• Build retargeting, audience, and segmentation strategies that improve demand capture and conversion performance across the funnel.

• Optimize media investment using first-party data, attribution insights, and conversion signal improvements to maximize return on spend.

• Define, track, and report on core performance KPIs such as traffic, rankings, CTR, CVR, CPL, CAC, ROAS, AI citation rate and share of voice, AI-referral traffic, pipeline contribution, and revenue influence.

• Use analytics and reporting platforms to translate performance data into clear recommendations, investment decisions, and action plans.

• Build forecasts and scenario models to guide budget decisions, growth planning, and target setting.

• Partner with analytics and operations teams to strengthen attribution, measurement, and performance visibility across digital channels.

• Lead and develop a high-performing digital marketing team, setting clear priorities, goals, and accountability across programs.

• Manage agency and vendor relationships across search, media, analytics, and SEO tooling.

• Partner cross-functionally with content, web, creative, product marketing, campaign teams, operations, and sales to ensure digital programs are aligned with company priorities and conversion goals.

• Bring structure, discipline, and operating rhythm to digital planning, optimization, reporting, and quarterly business reviews.

• SEO and SEM are scalable, predictable growth channels with measurable contribution to pipeline and revenue.

• Organic search performance improves across rankings, non-brand traffic, conversion quality, and share of voice.

• The brand earns strong, accurate visibility and citations across AI Overviews and leading AI-powered answer engines, capturing demand even as more searches end in zero-click, AI-generated answers.

• Paid search programs consistently capture high-intent demand while meeting efficiency and return targets.

• Display and paid social programs effectively support audience development, retargeting, and conversion acceleration.

• Budget allocation decisions are driven by performance data, clear attribution, and business outcomes.

• The digital marketing team operates with strong accountability, speed, and continuous optimization.

• 8+ years of progressive experience in digital or performance marketing, with significant depth in both SEO and SEM.

• Proven success leading search-driven growth programs in a B2B SaaS or technology environment.

• Deep expertise in SEO strategy, technical SEO, content SEO, keyword research, SERP analysis, and search performance measurement.

• Deep expertise in paid search strategy, campaign structure, bidding, audience targeting, ad testing, and budget optimization.

• Working knowledge of AI search and answer engine optimization (AEO/GEO/LLMO), including how large language models retrieve, synthesize, and cite content, and how to structure content and technical infrastructure to earn visibility in AI-generated answers.

• Experience managing display and paid social as part of an integrated performance marketing portfolio.

• Strong analytical and commercial orientation, with the ability to connect channel metrics to pipeline and revenue outcomes.

• Experience managing meaningful media budgets and making data-driven investment decisions.

• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional teams and influencing stakeholders across marketing, web, analytics, and executive leadership.

• Strong command of enterprise search and analytics platforms, including Google Ads, Search360, Google Search Console, Microsoft Advertising, Google Analytics 4, Adobe Analytics, Tableau, leading SEO tools such as SEMrush, Ahrefs, and BrightEdge, and AI search/answer engine visibility platforms such as Profound, AirOps, Otterly, and Peec AI.

• Fluency in AI search concepts and terminology — Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), LLM optimization (LLMO), zero-click search, AI Overviews, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), structured data/schema markup, and citation/share-of-voice tracking across AI-powered answer engines.

• Strong understanding of landing page optimization, conversion strategy, audience segmentation, and full-funnel performance marketing.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to turn complex data into actionable business insights.

• Strong leadership presence, operational discipline, and bias for action.

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, or a related field.

• Relevant certifications in Google Ads, Google Analytics, or Microsoft Advertising are a plus.