Senior Search Marketing Manager

KAYAK • Cambridge, MA

19h • Hybrid

About The Position

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings, is a leading travel search engine that helps people find flights, stays, rental cars, and vacation packages. They are also developing a corporate travel solution called KAYAK for Business. KAYAK operates a portfolio of global metasearch brands and is focused on innovation and building the best travel search engine. This role is for a Senior Search Engine Marketing Manager to join the Performance Marketing team in Cambridge, MA. The position involves owning and driving the growth of KAYAK's travel brands across North America on SEM, managing significant advertising budgets, and leading innovative projects with global impact. The role is part of an advanced digital marketing team and is responsible for a crucial channel, aiming to meet ambitious growth targets through data-driven execution. The SEM Manager will be a strategic driver of SEM programs with high autonomy, scaling brands across major search engines. They will lead high-stakes, cross-functional initiatives, collaborating with Commercial, Analytics, and Engineering teams to pioneer best practices and influence the roadmap for internal marketing platforms. This role requires a highly analytical expert who can balance hands-on technical execution with strategic influence on global growth. The position requires working from the Cambridge, MA office 3 days per week.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of experience working hands-on, managing large-scale, high-budget campaigns across top search engines.
• Fluency in both written and spoken English.
• Strong knowledge of the search landscape, including attribution and tracking, with a proven ability to use advanced automation, scripting, and bidding technologies.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets.
• A high-ownership mindset with the motivation to lead complex projects from initial concept to final delivery, ensuring cross-functional alignment and measurable impact.
• Ability to translate complex datasets into strategic recommendations for global teams and senior leadership.
• Experience mentoring junior team members and contributing to a culture of technical excellence and continuous experimentation.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in the travel industry or a high-volume e-commerce environment is a plus.
• Proficiency in another language relevant to our international markets is a plus.
• Experience with SQL and data visualization tools is a plus to facilitate deep-dive performance modeling.

Responsibilities

• Define global guidelines and contribute to the development of our suite of in-house marketing technologies.
• Monitor industry shifts and emerging technologies, including AI and LLM-driven search, to design and execute rigorous testing frameworks that enhance the user journey.
• Lead high-impact projects from ideation to delivery, managing competing priorities and coordinating across multiple teams to ensure results are delivered.
• Communicate clearly with global teams, sharing optimization insights across the broader performance marketing team.
• Use advanced analytical skills to turn deep-dive performance data into clear, actionable recommendations for senior leadership and global teams.
• Provide day-to-day guidance and technical mentorship to junior team members, fostering a culture of excellence and training the team on advanced performance marketing processes.
• Act as a strategic partner to Engineering and Product teams, providing the domain expertise needed to develop and automate our in-house tools.

Benefits

• Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year
• Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
• Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace
• Company-wide week off a year
• No meeting Fridays
• Paid parental leave
• Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday
• Paid volunteer time
• Development Dollars
• Leadership development
• Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings
• Travel Discounts
• Employee Resource Groups
• Competitive retirement and health plans
• Free lunch 2 days per week
• Fun quarterly events such as boat trips, arcades, ski trips, Thursday happy hours, and more
• health benefits
• flexible spending account
• retirement benefits
• life insurance
• paid time off (including PTO, paid sick leave, medical leave, bereavement leave, floating holidays and paid holidays)
• parental leave benefits

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed