Principal Associate, SEO/GEO Marketing Strategist | Retail Bank

Capital One • McLean, VA

23h • $109,900 - $137,900 • Hybrid

About The Position

Capital One’s Consumer Bank Marketing team is seeking a Principal Associate to lead SEO and GEO strategy. The role develops and executes organic visibility strategies that span traditional search engine optimization and emerging generative engine optimization, helping maximize the brand’s presence across search engines and AI chat interfaces.

The position manages day-to-day agency relationships and translates agency recommendations, technical audits, and performance data into clear briefs, strategic decisions, and actionable work for internal teams. It covers conversational and intent-based research; technical and semantic optimization; structured data; E-E-A-T and digital PR; content auditing and optimization; and measurement using analytics and enterprise SEO tools. The role also monitors search algorithms and AI search behavior, conducts controlled tests, and partners across content marketing, PR, product, UX/UI, and Site Ops/Content teams to embed best practices in digital initiatives.

The Principal Associate manages marketing creative reviews and governance processes to support audit readiness for consumer-facing assets. Success requires clear communication, customer-backed problem solving, influence across a matrixed organization, strategic and operational judgment, adaptability, and the ability to manage workstreams end-to-end.

This is a hybrid position subject to Capital One’s hybrid policy for required on-site presence at the designated office. The role is eligible for performance-based incentive compensation. Listed full-time annual salary ranges are $120,800–$137,900 in McLean, Virginia, and $109,900–$125,400 in Wilmington, Delaware. Capital One will not sponsor new applicants for employment authorization or provide immigration-related support for this position.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or military experience.
• At least 4 years of digital marketing experience.
• At least 4 years of experience using G-Suite.
• At least 4 years of experience with Google Analytics and Google Marketing Platform products.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with agile marketing principles.
• 5 or more years of digital marketing experience.
• Experience working with Google Search Console, Data Studio, STAT, or SEMRushData.

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day digital marketing agency partnerships, including meeting agendas, takeaways, action items, leadership communications, scheduling, and logistics.
• Develop and execute organic visibility strategies combining traditional SEO and emerging GEO.
• Partner with the agency on keyword, entity, and conversational query research to inform content roadmaps and address search intent and natural-language prompts.
• Translate technical site audits into actionable briefs for Site Ops and Content teams, supporting crawlability, indexability, and implementation of schema markup and structured data.
• Drive initiatives to establish and amplify brand E-E-A-T, including high-quality backlinks, unlinked brand mentions, and authoritative citations.
• Audit existing content libraries, identify performance decay, and optimize legacy pages for semantic relevance, answer-box capture, and inclusion in generative AI summaries.
• Interpret performance reports and monitoring tools, including Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and enterprise SEO platforms such as Ahrefs, and use findings to inform strategy.
• Partner with content marketing, PR, product, and UX/UI teams to integrate SEO/GEO best practices and architectural considerations into digital initiatives.
• Monitor search algorithm updates, AI search rollouts, and LLM behavior; design controlled tests to understand citation behavior and adapt tactics.
• Manage marketing creative review workflows and execute governance processes to maintain audit readiness for consumer-facing assets.
• Translate complex data into clear narratives tailored to diverse audiences and stakeholders.
• Build trust and consensus across partner teams, navigate a matrixed organization, and manage strategic workstreams from planning through delivery.
• Balance near-term execution with long-term strategy, adapt to changing priorities, and foster inclusive cross-team collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health, financial, and other benefits supporting total well-being.
• Performance-based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonuses and/or long-term incentives.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior