Director, Search and Visibility

JLL•Chicago, CO

1d•Onsite

About The Position

This is a player-coach role for a leader ready to redefine how JLL is discovered by clients and prospects in the age of AI. You will set JLL's SEO, GEO and AEO vision and multi-year roadmap across our business lines and priority markets, aligning strategy to business objectives and measurable KPIs across both traditional and AI-driven search environments. The Director, Search and Visibility role requires someone who can outline the long-term vision, craft the strategy, build a roadmap, develop the team, present results to senior executives and personally engage in the work when necessary, driving tangible results from day one.

Requirements

12+ years of SEO experience with depth across technical SEO, content strategy, performance measurement and enterprise execution.
3+ years leading team, with demonstrated ability to scale across multiple business lines and/or markets.
Strong knowledge of generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO), with the ability to shape an organizational point of view and drive adoption of new capabilities across teams.
Strong proficiency with web analytics and measurement tools (such as Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics) and enterprise SEO platforms.
Proven ability to translate complex findings into clear, executive-ready narratives, recommendations and decision frameworks.
Executive presence and polished presentation skills, with a demonstrated track record of presenting directly to senior executives and defending recommendations under scrutiny.
Strong analytical skills and the ability to communicate complex search trends to executive stakeholders.
Demonstrated ability to influence outcomes both with and without direct authority, across teams that don't report to this role.
Experience operating effectively in a large, matrixed organization, where priorities have to be negotiated across business lines and functions.
Proven accountability for performance, not simply participation in projects or support of another leader's strategy.
Experience leading enterprise-scale initiatives across a large, global organization spanning multiple business lines.
Experience creating governance models, standards and scalable operating practices, such as a center of excellence.
Strong cross-functional leadership skills that drives implementation forward.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree
Agency or professional services background strongly preferred; commercial real estate experience is a plus but not required.
Comfort operating in an evolving function, shaping process rather than following an existing one.

Responsibilities

Set the SEO, GEO and AEO vision and multi-year roadmap across JLL's business lines and priority markets, aligning strategy to business objectives and measurable KPIs across both traditional and AI-driven search environments.
Set a single enterprise strategy and framework, then partner with local and regional teams to implement, adjust and apply it to their specific market dynamics.
Develop an integrated plan that connects owned and earned content, technical infrastructure and external authority signals, balancing near-term gains with long-term capability building.
Drive the development of scalable frameworks and capabilities that enable JLL's business lines to compete for visibility across AI-driven and answer-based search experiences.
Operate effectively inside a highly matrixed organization, where success depends on aligning stakeholders across business lines and functions, both within and outside of the Marketing organization.
Establish an enterprise Center of Excellence to ensure consistency across teams, creating the governance, standards, processes, templates, measurement frameworks and operating practices that scales across the organization.
Coordinate initiatives across multiple teams to prevent fragmentation and duplication, driving the organization from team-specific SEO execution toward an integrated enterprise discovery model.
Own a single measurement framework applied consistently across markets, guiding executive-ready storytelling for how success is defined and tracked across both traditional search performance and emerging AI-driven search experiences, building structured flexibility for local nuance into the framework.
Selectively apply AI-assisted capabilities, such as opportunity identification, workflow efficiencies and trend monitoring, while maintaining strong human judgment and quality control.
Serve as a senior escalation point and trusted advisor, building and maintaining executive-level relationships with senior stakeholders and guiding high-stakes decisions.
Present results directly to senior executives, personally defending recommendations and translating complex, fast-changing technical concepts into concise, easy to understand business narratives.
Lead and develop team members and agency resources, driving coaching, succession planning and a high-performance, learning-oriented culture.
Operate as a true player-coach: capable of presenting enterprise visibility results to a senior executive one moment and reviewing topic opportunities or troubleshooting a technical issue with the team the next.
Drive integrated solutions by partnering with cross-functional leaders across marketing and other teams, to ensure SEO is embedded in holistic plans rather than run as a separate workstream.
Influence outcomes both with and without formal authority, building consensus across teams that don't report to this role while still being prepared to set direction when consensus isn't reached.
Collaborate with marketing, editorial, subject matter experts, business lines, field, social, communications and brand teams to strengthen topical authority and AI visibility, guiding the creation of structured, authoritative content optimized for both traditional search and AI-generated answers.
Help teams determine content creation, updates, distribution and reformatting needs, incorporating expert knowledge, trusted claims and authoritative sources into content strategy, and expanding discovery beyond owned properties by accounting for the influence of video, social, review platforms and earned media on AI-generated results.
Own the evolution of the SEO and GEO toolset and technology stack, and guide the technical foundations, including structured data, schema and crawlability, that determine how AI crawlers and answer engines access and use JLL's content.