General Summary
The Director, Search Strategy & Performance Marketing is responsible for developing and executing Candela's search acquisition and visibility strategy across paid, organic, and emerging search channels. This role owns Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and AI search strategy, with responsibility for driving qualified demand, increasing Candela's visibility throughout the customer journey, and maximizing the efficiency and business impact of search investment.
This individual will serve as Candela's subject matter expert for the evolving search landscape, connecting paid and organic search strategies to create a unified approach to how customers discover, research, and engage with Candela and its products. The role combines strategic channel leadership with strong analytical and technical search expertise and requires close partnership with agency partners, Product Marketing, Content, Web, Analytics, Growth Marketing, and regional teams.
Primary Responsibilities
Paid Search Strategy & Performance
• Own Candela's Paid Search strategy, roadmap, and performance across relevant markets, products, and customer segments.
• Develop campaign and investment strategies aligned with lead generation, pipeline, revenue, and broader business objectives.
• Manage Paid Search budgets and continuously optimize investment based on performance, efficiency, lead quality, and downstream business impact.
• Oversee campaign architecture, keyword strategy, bidding strategies, audience targeting, ad copy, extensions, landing page alignment, and conversion optimization.
• Partner with agency teams to continuously test and optimize campaigns while maintaining clear performance expectations and accountability.
• Identify opportunities to expand search coverage across new products, audiences, geographies, and search platforms.
• Monitor competitive search activity, auction dynamics, search trends, and changes to platform capabilities.
• Partner with Analytics and Marketing Operations to improve conversion tracking, attribution, and visibility into Paid Search's impact on pipeline and revenue.
SEO Strategy
• Own Candela's SEO strategy and roadmap with responsibility for increasing qualified organic visibility and traffic.
• Develop keyword and topic strategies based on customer search behavior, product priorities, competitive opportunities, and business objectives.
• Partner with Web and agency teams on technical SEO initiatives including crawlability, indexation, site architecture, redirects, canonicalization, structured data, internal linking, and Core Web Vitals.
• Identify organic search opportunities across product, treatment, educational, and commercial content.
• Partner with Content and Product Marketing to translate search insights into content priorities and optimization recommendations.
• Monitor algorithm updates and evolving search engine requirements and adjust strategy accordingly.
• Conduct competitive analysis to identify content gaps, keyword opportunities, and areas where Candela can improve search authority and visibility.
• Establish SEO governance and best practices for teams creating and publishing digital content.
AI Search & Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
• Develop and own Candela's strategy for AI-driven search, Answer Engine Optimization, and emerging discovery platforms.
• Improve Candela's visibility and representation across AI-powered search experiences and large language model (LLM)-based discovery.
• Identify opportunities to structure and optimize content so Candela's products, technologies, treatments, and expertise are accurately surfaced within AI-generated answers.
• Partner with Content, Product Marketing, Web, and agency teams to implement AEO best practices across Candela's digital ecosystem.
• Monitor Candela's visibility, citations, share of voice, and competitive positioning across emerging AI search platforms.
• Evaluate new technologies and tools for monitoring and improving AI search performance.
• Stay current on changes in Google, Bing, AI search platforms, LLMs, and other emerging discovery environments and translate those changes into actionable strategies.
• Develop testing frameworks to determine which content, technical, and authority-building approaches improve AI search visibility.
Organic Growth & Content Discovery
• Identify high-value search opportunities throughout the customer journey, from early education and treatment research through product evaluation and purchase consideration.
• Partner with Content Marketing and Product Marketing to develop search-informed editorial priorities and content roadmaps.
• Identify content gaps based on search demand, competitive performance, customer questions, and emerging trends.
• Improve organic visibility for Candela's products, technologies, treatments, clinical education, and thought leadership.
• Recommend opportunities to create, consolidate, refresh, or retire content based on search performance and customer value.
• Ensure search insights inform broader campaign, content, and product marketing planning.
Search Analytics & Measurement
• Establish KPIs and measurement frameworks across Paid Search, SEO, AEO, and other performance acquisition initiatives.
• Track and analyze search visibility, rankings, traffic, engagement, conversions, lead quality, pipeline contribution, revenue impact, and return on investment.
• Develop regular performance reporting that translates channel data into clear business insights and recommendations.
• Analyze search behavior and trends to identify changes in customer demand, competitive activity, and market opportunities.
• Partner with Analytics and Marketing Operations to ensure accurate tracking, attribution, tagging, and reporting.
• Use data to continuously prioritize investment and optimization opportunities across paid and organic search.
• Communicate performance, insights, risks, and opportunities to marketing leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.
Affiliate & Emerging Performance Channels
• Oversee the development and optimization of Candela's affiliate marketing initiatives where appropriate.
• Evaluate potential affiliate partners, networks, and performance-based acquisition opportunities.
• Establish appropriate measurement, governance, and performance expectations for affiliate programs.
• Identify emerging acquisition channels and search-related opportunities that could expand Candela's ability to reach high-value audiences.
• Develop business cases and testing plans for new performance marketing opportunities.
Agency & Partner Management
Manage and provide strategic direction to agency and external partners responsible for:
• Paid Search
• SEO
• AEO and AI search
• Affiliate marketing
• Technical search audits
• Content optimization
• Search analytics and competitive intelligence
Establish clear objectives, KPIs, deliverables, and accountability across agency partners while ensuring external resources operate as an extension of Candela's internal marketing organization.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Partner closely with:
• Product Marketing
• Digital Experience & Web
• Content Marketing
• CRM & Marketing Automation
• Creative
• Analytics
• Marketing Operations
• Sales
• Regional Marketing
to ensure search strategy is connected to broader customer acquisition, campaign, content, and business priorities.
Knowledge/Educational Requirements
• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, Analytics, Digital Media, or a related field from an accredited institution.
• Minimum seven (7) years of experience across Paid Search, SEO, performance marketing, or digital acquisition, with demonstrated responsibility for strategy and business performance.
• Deep expertise with Google Ads and strong understanding of Microsoft Advertising and other relevant paid search platforms.
• Strong understanding of Paid Search campaign architecture, bidding strategies, keyword management, audience targeting, conversion tracking, optimization, and budget management.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing enterprise SEO strategies across technical SEO, on-page optimization, content strategy, keyword research, internal linking, and structured data.
• Strong understanding of emerging AEO, generative AI search, LLM visibility, and how search behavior is evolving beyond traditional search engines.
• Experience with Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, Google Tag Manager, SEMrush, Ahrefs, or similar search and analytics platforms.
• Familiarity with AI search and visibility measurement platforms and emerging technologies used to understand brand representation across AI-generated search experiences.
• Working knowledge of technical SEO concepts including HTML, JavaScript rendering, schema markup, crawlability, indexation, redirects, canonicalization, XML sitemaps, robots.txt, Core Web Vitals, and website architecture.
• Strong understanding of conversion tracking, attribution, marketing funnels, and the relationship between media performance, lead quality, pipeline, and revenue.
• Demonstrated experience managing significant Paid Search budgets and making investment decisions based on performance and business impact.
• Experience managing Paid Search, SEO, AEO, and/or performance marketing agencies with responsibility for strategy, execution, and performance accountability.
• Experience developing testing roadmaps and translating performance data into actionable optimization strategies.
• Ability to translate complex search, media, and analytics concepts into clear recommendations for non-technical and executive stakeholders.
• Strong analytical, financial, project management, vendor management, presentation, and organizational skills.
• Ability to work effectively within a matrixed, global organization and influence cross-functional teams without direct authority.
• Strong Microsoft Office skills including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
This job description is not all inclusive and is intended to capture a majority of the job functions. Special projects and other tasks may be required by management.
