Search Strategy Lead

No Relocation Assistance Offered

Job Number #170688 - Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa

Colgate-Palmolive Company is a global consumer products company operating in over 200 countries specializing in Oral Care, Personal Care, Home Care, Skin Care, and Pet Nutrition. Our products are trusted in more households than any other brand in the world, making us a household name!

Join Colgate-Palmolive, a caring, innovative growth company reimagining a healthier future for people, their pets, and our planet. Guided by our core values-Caring, Inclusive, and Courageous-we foster a culture that inspires our people to achieve common goals. Together, let's build a brighter, healthier future for all.

We are seeking a Search Strategy Lead to lead the strategic evolution of our search ecosystem for Colgate-Palmolive across the Africa Eur Asia Division.

This leadership role will be responsible for transforming search into a primary engine for driving e-commerce growth, dominating our online presence
, and fueling our 1PD pipeline for personalization.

The ideal candidate will develop and pioneer our new AI-First Search Strategy
, transforming how we win in this new landscape. This requires a visionary strategist with proven mastery of SEM (SEO/PPC) and Retail Media (Sponsored Search). This person will serve as the central strategic leader and evangelist for search, partnering with and empowering our local digital teams to orchestrate growth and set a new standard of digital excellence.

• Develop and execute a robust search strategy tailored to our top-priority Africa Eur Asia markets to drive e-commerce sales and grow our online market share
  .
• Monitor all paid search campaigns across Google Ads and Sponsored Search on Retail Media Networks (RMN) to drive sales and product visibility on key e-commerce sites.
• Develop a comprehensive SEO strategy to improve organic search rankings through Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), defining content strategies for AI-driven search (e.g., Google SGE, Perplexity) and retrieval-based natural language processing (NLP) systems.
• Oversee the high-level goal of capturing high-quality first-party data (both known and unknown) through all search-related activities.
• Guide the content team in creating optimized content to appear in AI snapshots, instant answers, voice search, and featured SERPs
  .
• Perform regular technical SEO audits and work with the web development team in LATAM to implement fixes (e.g., site speed, structured data, crawlability).
• Develop and manage scalable link-building strategies to enhance domain authority.
• Conduct A/B testing on ad copy, landing pages, and bidding models to drive continuous improvement.
• Define, monitor, and report on KPIs for all search initiatives, preparing detailed reports for senior management with actionable insights.
• Serve as the central in-house expert on search, providing guidance, training, and best practices to local subsidiary digital teams.
• Support all local teams to manage all paid media budgets, bidding strategies, and external agency performance to maximize ROAS and minimize CPA.

• Bachelor's degree in Advertising, Marketing, Business, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Minimum 5 years of hands‑on experience managing complex Search (SEO/PPC) campaigns, with deep experience in Retail Media and the evolving AI search landscape.
• Proven track record of successfully improving organic rankings and managing complex paid search campaigns with significant budgets.
• Expert knowledge of GA4, GSC, and Google Ads.
• Deep experience with standard search tools (Semrush, Ahrefs and Screaming Frog).
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret data, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions.
• Strong communication, presentation, and collaboration skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts to non-technical stakeholders, upskill brand teams, and influence senior management.
• Self-starter with an experimental (test-and-learn) mindset, capable of prioritizing tasks and working in a fast-paced corporate environment without full…