Job Title: Head of ORM
Employment Type: Full-Time, 40 hours/week
Reports to: Sr. Director of Brand Experience & Storytelling
FLSA Status: Exempt
Position Type: In-person
Opportunity:
SurgeU is looking for a Head of Online Reputation Management who can operate at the intersection of technical search strategy, content strategy, brand reputation, and consumer trust. This is not a traditional reputation-management role focused primarily on responding to reviews nor is it simply an SEO role.
We're looking for someone who understands that modern online reputation is shaped by an entire digital ecosystem: what ranks, what gets indexed, what AI and search engines surface, what third parties say, what customers say, what content exists to answer difficult questions, and how all of those signals work together to shape trust. The Head of ORM will be the strategist responsible for that ecosystem.
Responsibilities:
- Owning the overall ORM strategy for SurgeU across search engines, review platforms, owned properties, third-party content, and emerging discovery environments.
- Developing the strategy for high-priority branded search queries, including brand-name, reviews, complaints, program-specific, leadership, and other reputation-sensitive searches.
- Analyzing page-one SERP composition and determining where SurgeU has opportunities, vulnerabilities, or content gaps.
- Building a roadmap for improving the quality, authority, relevance, and composition of search results surrounding the brand.
- Connecting technical SEO strategy with content strategy rather than treating them as separate disciplines.
- Determining what content needs to exist based on search behavior, reputation signals, customer questions, complaint themes, competitive positioning, and gaps in the current SERP.
- Translating technical search insights into actionable briefs for writers, communications teams, Creative, web teams, and external partners.
- Partnering with Communications and Brand to develop credible, useful content that strengthens both reputation and discoverability.
- Guiding the development of trust-focused content including FAQs, resource pages, student stories, program information, leadership content, educational resources, proof points, and other owned assets.
- Overseeing on-page optimization, internal linking strategy, structured data, metadata, information architecture, and other technical factors affecting reputation-related content.
- Evaluating domain authority, backlink profiles, referring domains, and opportunities to strengthen the authority of owned content.
- Monitoring branded search results and identifying meaningful changes in rankings, sentiment, third-party coverage, reviews, and competitive content.
- Owning SurgeU's review-platform strategy across relevant platforms and ensuring public engagement supports the larger reputation strategy.
- Identifying recurring complaint or perception themes and translating those signals into recommendations for Brand, Communications, Content, Education, Customer Experience, and leadership.
- Partnering with Earned Media & Communications to turn credible third-party coverage, thought leadership, and proof-point stories into assets that strengthen the broader search ecosystem.
- Helping develop SurgeU's strategy for how the brand appears in AI-driven discovery and answer environments as consumer search behavior evolves.
- Establishing dashboards, reporting, benchmarks, and KPIs that allow leadership to understand the health of SurgeU's online reputation.
- Leading the ORM team and determining where internal resources, agencies, technology, and specialized partners should be deployed.
Qualifications:
- 7+ years of experience in SEO, online reputation management, digital strategy, content strategy, or related disciplines.
- Proven experience developing search and reputation strategies for branded and reputation-sensitive queries.
- Strong technical SEO expertise and proficiency with tools such as Ahrefs, Semrush, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and Screaming Frog.
- Strong understanding of content strategy. This includes search intent, topical authority, reviews, and owned, earned, and third-party digital properties.
- Ability to analyze search, content, reputation, and sentiment data and translate insights into clear, actionable strategies.
- Excellent communication and editorial judgment, with the ability to explain technical concepts to executives and nontechnical stakeholders.
- Experience leading teams, agencies, vendors, or cross-functional initiatives in a fast-paced, reputation-sensitive environment.
Other Factors:
We'll be especially interested if you've built an ORM program rather than simply participated in one. You are probably the kind of person who opens an SEO tool because you genuinely want to understand why something is ranking. But you don't stop at the data. You start asking what the person behind that search is trying to understand, and what content deserves their trust.
You're technical enough to find the problem. Strategic enough to determine what matters. Editorial enough to recognize the right story. And influential enough to bring multiple teams together to solve it. That's the Head of ORM we're looking for at SurgeU.
Job Benefits:
- Health, Dental, Vision, Life, Holiday, and Paid Time Off.
- Non-corporate, casual, entrepreneurial, comfortable, fun, and proactive work environment.
- High-level performers, disciplined, and self-motivated people will do very well in this environment.
