Senior Manager, GEO Strategy & AI Search Activation

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Job Description

For more than 80 years, Kaplan has been a trailblazer in education and professional advancement. We are a global company at the intersection of education and technology, focused on collaboration, innovation, and creativity to deliver a best-in-class educational experience and make Kaplan a great place to work.

The future of education is here and we are eager to work alongside those who want to make a positive impact and inspire change in the world around them.

The Senior Manager, GEO Strategy & AI Search Activation provides strategic vision, technical leadership, and off-page activation to maximize visibility across Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI search platforms. Operating across a comprehensive portfolio, this role will support higher education university clients and Kaplan test prep and professional education product lines. The Senior Manager drives innovative strategies designed to position Kaplan brands and partner institutions as primary, trusted sources for Large Language Models (LLMs) and answer engines, including ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews.

The Senior Manager balances hands-on execution and publisher outreach with cross-functional collaboration, guiding internal teams and managing workflows to drive data-driven business impact. This position directly conducts AI visibility and sentiment audits, coordinates multi-tiered publisher outreach pipelines, maintains foundational SEO and content marketing best practices, and collaborates across cross-functional marketing and product teams to expand entity trust, visibility, and citation share across LLM and AI search ecosystems. 

Primary/Key Responsibilities

• Execute Channel & GEO Strategy: Formulate, deploy, and manage forward-thinking Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and off-page search strategies designed to position Higher Education client institutions and Test Prep product lines as preferred, trusted sources across generative AI models.
• Drive Programmatic GEO & Entity Authority: Build programmatic GEO authority across core academic and professional verticals, ensuring institutional entities and brand authority are accurately recognized and reinforced in LLM knowledge bases and Knowledge Graphs.
• Manage Tiered Publisher Engagement & Outreach: Operationalize a multi-tiered publisher engagement model; identify target sites, route high-profile media opportunities to internal or client PR/communications teams, and directly outreach to publications and education portals.
• Audit Sentiment & Correct Third-Party Inaccuracies: Conduct sentiment audits across influential third-party websites, education portals, and industry platforms to identify content inaccuracies, outdated product information, or negative brand drivers; execute targeted publisher outreach to correct data errors and enhance overall brand positioning across search engine results and AI models.
• Analyze and Measure AI Performance Metrics: Monitor, analyze, and report on AI performance metrics including AI visibility scores, sentiment scores, citation share, share-of-voice, and citation placements across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Mode, and Google AI Overviews using enterprise platforms such as Profound and Ahrefs.
• Integrate SEO & Content Marketing Best Practices: Identify and execute opportunities to incorporate foundational SEO and content marketing best practices (including keyword intent mapping, metadata optimization, internal linking, on-page optimizations, and content freshness) into all GEO initiatives and cross-functional web projects.
• Implement Extractable Content & Information Gain Standards: Partner with internal Content Marketing teams to optimize existing pages and close competitive content gaps with net-new content, structuring owned assets for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) extraction while embedding proprietary data and Subject Matter Expert (SME) insights to meet Information Gain criteria.
• Mobilize Cross-Functional Alignment: Serve as an authoritative GEO champion across the organization, building partnerships across SEO, Affiliate, Product Marketing, Legal, Creative, Editorial, and Web teams to align messaging and execute integrated AI search strategies.
• Integrate AI into Search Workflows: Strategically utilize AI tools, prompts, and automated workflows (e.g., Claude, Gemini, Python scripts) to accelerate target discovery, sentiment categorization, and performance reporting while maintaining strict standards of human oversight.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree with a focus in Marketing, Communications, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
• Minimum of 6 years of experience managing organic search (SEO), digital outreach, or content marketing strategies for multi-website portfolios, including a minimum of 1 year of direct, hands-on experience in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and AI search strategy. Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional project workflows and executing off-page outreach campaigns.
• GEO & AI Search Mastery: Deep familiarity with the emerging landscape of generative search, Large Language Model (LLM) retrieval mechanics, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) concepts, and entity-based SEO frameworks.
• Foundational SEO & Content Strategy: Strong grounding in core organic search methodologies (including keyword research, search intent mapping, metadata, on-page optimizations, content marketing best practices, and internal link architecture) to ensure GEO campaigns align with traditional SEO goals.
• Systems and Analytics Toolsets: Advanced proficiency with enterprise search and AI tracking platforms, including Profound, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Search Console, Google Analytics 4, and Looker Studio.
• Strategic Outreach & Publisher Pitching: Proven track record of securing brand mentions, guest contributions, and high-authority citations across industry publications, news outlets, and niche education portals.
• Communication & Problem Solving: Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, and critical thinking skills, with a proven ability to translate complex AI search concepts into actionable business priorities for cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the higher education or test prep/professional licensure industries.
• Functional understanding of core technical SEO elements (crawling infrastructure, JavaScript rendering, and structured data/JSON-LD schema).

Beyond base salary, our comprehensive total rewards package includes:
- Remote work provides a flexible work/life balance
- Comprehensive Retirement Package automatically enrolled in The Company Contribution Plan (8-10% annual company contribution based on tenure)
- Our Gift of Knowledge Program provides tuition assistance and substantial discounts for our employees and close family members
- Comprehensive health benefits new hire eligibility starts on day 1 of employment
- Generous Paid Time Off includes paid holidays, vacation, personal, sick paid time-off, plus one (1) volunteer day and one (1) diversity and inclusion day to participate and give back to our local communities
We are committed to providing a supportive and rewarding work environment where every employee can thrive. You can learn more about our full benefits package and total rewards philosophy here.

At Kaplan, we believe in attracting, rewarding, and retaining exceptional talent. Our compensation philosophy is designed to be competitive within the market, reflecting the value we place on the skills, experience, and contributions of our employees, while taking into account labor market trends and total rewards.

For full-time positions, Kaplan has three Salary Grades. This position is Salary Grade B: $64,819 to $162,047. The specific compensation offered will be determined by a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate's qualifications, relevant experience, education, skills, and market data. We are an equal opportunity employer and comply with all applicable federal and state wage laws.
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Diversity & Inclusion Statement:

Kaplan is committed to cultivating an inclusive workplace that values diversity, promotes equity, and integrates inclusivity into all aspects of our operations. We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of age, race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, nationality, or sex. We believe that diversity strengthens our organization, fuels innovation, and improves our ability to serve our students, customers, and communities. Learn more about our culture here.

Kaplan considers qualified applicants for employment even if applicants have an arrest or conviction in their background check records. Kaplan complies with related background check regulations, including but not limited to, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.  There are various positions where certain convictions may disqualify applicants, such as those positions requiring interaction with minors, financial records, or other sensitive and/or confidential information.