SEO/AEO Strategist

SEO/AEO StrategistLocation: Irving, TX (Onsite) | ContractOverviewOur client is seeking a hands-on SEO/AEO Strategist to improve how customers discover the company and its brands across traditional search engines, answer engines, and AI-powered search experiences. This role combines search strategy with technical diagnosis and direct implementation, working with Product, UX, Engineering, and Technology to prioritize, ship, and validate improvements.ResponsibilitiesTechnical SEO: Audit and improve crawlability, indexation, sitemaps, redirects, canonicalization, site architecture, internal linking, metadata, and other technical barriers to search visibility.Hands-on implementation: Make or directly contribute to changes in HTML, page templates, metadata, CMS configurations, and structured data. Validate changes in appropriate environments and after release.Structured data and schema: Implement and validate structured data that helps search engines and answer engines understand pages, products, services, and entities.SEO and AEO strategy: Define and execute search strategies across the company's digital properties, including content discoverability in traditional search and AI-generated answers.AI-search optimization: Assess how content appears in AI-generated answers and other answer surfaces; identify technical or content gaps and turn findings into concrete site improvements.Intent and journey mapping: Analyze user intent and search behavior and connect search needs to relevant content and experiences across the customer journey.Product backlog and prioritization: Translate audits, search insights, and opportunities into clear requirements, prioritized backlog items, and acceptance criteria with Product and UX partners.Engineering delivery: Partner with Product, UX, Engineering, and Technology to navigate site ownership, work through normal engineering review and release processes, get changes shipped, and confirm implementation quality.Measurement and optimization: Use search, analytics, crawling, and AI-visibility data to prioritize fixes and evaluate whether shipped changes improved discoverability. Communicate results and limitations clearly.Content and information architecture: Guide keyword, topic, and entity research; advise on taxonomy, page structure, internal linking, and content optimization in partnership with content teams.Standards and enablement: Develop practical guidelines and repeatable practices that help teams maintain search-friendly experiences at scale.Required Qualifications5+ years of relevant experience in SEO, technical SEO, AEO, search experience, or a related discipline.Demonstrated ability to audit and resolve technical SEO issues involving crawlability, indexation, sitemaps, redirects, canonicalization, and site architecture.Hands-on experience implementing or directly contributing to web changes in HTML, metadata, templates, a CMS, or structured data. A recommendations-only or ticket-only approach is not sufficient for this role.Experience implementing and validating schema/structured data for search engines and answer engines.Practical understanding of how search engines and AI/answer platforms discover, interpret, and surface content; ability to turn findings into site changes.Ability to work in a site codebase or CMS and collaborate through engineering review, release, and post-deployment validation processes.Experience partnering with Product, UX, Engineering, and Technology to prioritize work, resolve ownership or dependency questions, and deliver changes.Strong analytical skills; ability to use search and site-performance data to prioritize work and assess outcomes.Strong written, verbal, and consultative communication skills, including the ability to explain technical findings and influence roadmap decisions.Experience managing multiple initiatives and working effectively in an agile product environment.Portfolio or documented case studies showing technical SEO/AEO work, implementation contributions, and outcomes.Preferred QualificationsExperience optimizing content for generative AI, answer engines, and conversational search experiences.Experience with programmatic SEO, enterprise CMS-driven optimization, and content at scale.Experience supporting e-commerce or transaction-driven digital experiences.Familiarity with marketing platforms, campaign engines, personalization systems, and enterprise search/SEO tools.Experience with competitive analysis, keyword and topic research, content gaps, and search trend forecasting.Experience integrating search requirements into UX practices or design systems.EducationA bachelor's degree in Marketing, Information Science, Communications, or a related field is preferred. Equivalent relevant experience may be considered in place of a degree.Pay rate: $60/hr. This is a 6-month contract position, onsite in Irving, TX. Candidates must be Green Card holders, H4 EAD, L2 EAD, OPT, TN Visa, or US Citizens.