Group Head - SEO

Location: Bengaluru

Role Overview :

We are looking for a Senior Manager / Group Head – SEO to lead and scale the SEO function at Havas COE. This role is both strategic and hands-on, requiring deep expertise across technical SEO, content-led growth, authority building, and emerging AI-driven search ecosystems.

You will be responsible for owning the SEO practice end-to-end—from strategy and delivery to team leadership, client growth, and P&L ownership. The ideal candidate has strong agency experience, has worked with multiple clients across geographies, and is comfortable operating as a trusted SEO advisor for senior stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership & Practice Ownership

- Act as the SEO thought leader and subject-matter expert for clients and internal stakeholders across the network.
- Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing SEO team; define roles, career paths, and performance benchmarks.
- Conduct regular training, knowledge-sharing sessions, and playbook updates to keep the team aligned with industry and platform changes.
- Establish and continuously improve SEO processes, frameworks, and best practices to ensure scalable and consistent delivery.

Client & Stakeholder Management

- Serve as the primary point of contact for SEO clients across markets, ensuring high levels of satisfaction, trust, and retention.
- Own client expectation management, performance communication, and issue resolution.
- Partner with internal teams (content, tech, product, analytics, media) to ensure SEO is integrated across initiatives.
- Present SEO strategies, performance insights, and recommendations clearly to senior client stakeholders.

Strategy, Delivery & Innovation

- Plan, build, and execute holistic SEO strategies to drive sustainable organic growth across traditional search and AI-powered search environments.
- Guide the team in conducting advanced technical SEO audits, covering crawlability, indexation, site architecture, Core Web Vitals, structured data, and rendering issues.
- Oversee content and on-page optimization strategies grounded in search intent, entity-based SEO, EEAT principles, and performance data.
- Lead off-page SEO initiatives, including digital PR, authority-building, link acquisition, and brand mention strategies.
- Develop and evolve strategies aligned with GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and LLM-driven search experiences.
- Stay ahead of algorithm updates, AI search shifts, and platform changes, translating them into actionable strategies.

Growth, Pitches & P&L

- Collaborate with sales and leadership teams to nurture leads, develop SEO proposals, and participate in pitches.
- Define SEO scopes, pricing models, delivery approaches, and success metrics for new business.
- Own SEO P&L, including revenue growth, cost optimization, utilization, and margin improvement.
- Identify opportunities to expand SEO engagements into adjacent offerings (content, CRO, analytics, ASO, etc.).

Data, Reporting & Measurement

- Partner with data & analytics team to design, maintain, and evolve SEO dashboards using GA4 and Looker Studio.
- Monitor KPIs such as organic traffic, rankings, visibility, conversions, and revenue impact.
- Perform in-depth SEO data analysis to uncover trends, risks, and growth opportunities.
- Deliver clear, insight-led performance reports with actionable recommendations for clients and internal leadership.

Requirements & Eligibility:

- 8–12 years of proven SEO experience (agency and/or in-house); agency experience strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience leading SEO teams and managing multiple clients.
- Strong exposure to global clients and multi-market SEO strategies.
- Proven experience in proposal development, pitching, and P&L ownership.
- Deep expertise across technical SEO, on-page/content optimization, and off-page SEO.
- Hands-on experience with site architecture, performance optimization, and complex technical implementations.
- Solid understanding of GEO, AEO, AI-driven search, and evolving search interfaces.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate data into strategic recommendations.
- Advanced experience with SEO and analytics tools including GA4,…