Job Description

About the Role

The SEO function at The Athletic plays an essential role in reaching and growing our biggest audience channel: search.

We are seeking a Technical SEO Manager to be the dedicated search expert embedded within the Product organization, with full ownership of the technical SEO roadmap and execution. While partnering closely with the Editorial SEO team on overall strategy, this role is responsible for improving search visibility primarily by enhancing the product’s technical capabilities and performance. You will partner directly with engineers and product leads to ensure the latest technical SEO best practices are implemented, the site’s technical health is sound, and all product development aligns with Google’s core guidelines. Furthermore, you will analyze search performance, develop search strategies, and lead initiatives to grow search.

• Influence and direct strategic search projects in partnership with the editorial SEO team, the Audience team, and the Product organization (including Product and Engineering leadership). 
• Lead on analyzing SEO performance metrics, translating complex data into actionable insights and continuous strategic adjustments.
• Establish the prioritization framework of SEO initiatives by evaluating potential impact and business value against the required effort to ensure focus on the highest-value work.
• Oversee and conduct continuous technical audits; identifying enhancements, bugs, and fixes, and filing them in JIRA.
• Ensure product compliance to web performance standards, including Core Web Vitals, Time to First Byte (TTFB), and accessibility guidelines, driving accountability across Engineering teams.
• Analyze traffic abnormalities and fluctuations, providing real-time debugging, auditing, and diagnosing.
• Monitor and benchmark competitors in the sports news space, looking at different technical aspects of their site for insights and inspiration.
• Develop and deliver ongoing technical SEO training programs, and establish technical standards and best practices for cross-functional teams.
• Maintain a strong understanding of Google's search ecosystem, proactively staying informed about the latest algorithm updates, bugs, new requirements, and features.
• Build familiarity with new technologies and platforms, including AI search engines,, to inform product strategy.

• Must have 4+ years of technical SEO experience.
• 2+ years demonstrated experience working with product and engineering teams.
• Experience managing multiple work streams.
• An understanding of current technical search best practices and the implementation details to achieve them.
• Experience communicating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, and helping to weigh the impact of technical SEO work on UX and Audience.
• Experience using multiple industry-leading SEO tools (Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, Botify, Ahrefs, etc.).
• Comprehension of Schema.org, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, status codes, and web standards.

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