Director of Organic Growth & AI Discovery

Hi, We're Centerfield!

Supercharged customer acquisition. Centerfield delivers outcome-based digital marketing solutions and personalized omnichannel experiences for the world’s leading brands. Powered by our proprietary Dugout platform, Centerfield acquires customers at scale for leading residential service, insurance, e-commerce, and B2B brands. Centerfield’s digital experiences and digital brands, such as Business.com http://Business.com and BroadbandNow.com http://BroadbandNow.com, reach more than 150 million in-market shoppers annually. Centerfield is headquartered in Silicon Beach and is proud to be recognized by Built in LA as a Best Place to Work in Los Angeles.

THE OPPORTUNITY...

Centerfield is hiring a Director, Organic Growth to drive organic performance and AI-search visibility across our portfolio of 10 digital brands. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who understands search deeply, from traditional SERPs to AI Overviews and LLM answer engines, and can turn that understanding into traffic, visibility, and gross profit. You will turn agreed business priorities and client commitments into roadmaps, assignments, and completed work.

Reporting to the VP, Content, you will lead the Organic Growth and Web Publishing team and work closely with Content, Sales, Corporate Marketing, Product, Engineering, Communications, and our AI & Automation team. We are looking for a leader who can diagnose a performance problem, develop the team, and make a clear recommendation to senior leadership, sometimes all in the same day. You have a strong bias to action. You make calls with imperfect data, and you have no patience for reporting that does not lead to a decision.

HOW YOU'LL CONTRIBUTE...

EXECUTE ORGANIC GROWTH ROADMAPS ACROSS THE PORTFOLIO

- Develop and execute per-site organic growth roadmaps across all 10 brands (SEO, answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization), within portfolio priorities agreed with the VP, Content and Presidents. Recommend what gets created, refreshed, consolidated, or retired, and turn approved priorities into work tied to qualified traffic, conversions, and gross profit.

- Write and maintain practical guidance for SEO, answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization, and update it as the evidence changes.

- Diagnose organic performance declines and algorithm or AI-platform changes. Separate a reporting bug or technical problem from a broader shift, and lead specific recovery plans with accountable owners, built with the Content Leads rather than handed to them.

- Shape the technical search roadmap with Product and Engineering across crawlability, indexation, information architecture, internal linking, structured data, and site templates.

- Translate technical findings into clear requirements for Engineering, and verify the impact of completed work.

- Build search and discovery considerations into content planning, publishing workflows, and site changes.

- Run focused tests with Content and Communications to understand how authoritative content, YouTube, social, community participation and earned mentions contribute to discovery.

MAKE PERFORMANCE CLEAR AND ACTIONABLE

- Maintain accurate operational reporting using agreed measures for organic traffic, engagement and conversions, AI visibility (citations and share of voice), sponsorship deliverables, delivery quality and capacity. Distinguish visibility signals from attributable business outcomes, and supply delivery and performance data for commercial leadership's business reviews.

- Improve reporting accuracy and consistency with analytics and technical partners.

- Lead weekly operating reviews and monthly reviews by business segment, turning findings into recommendations for Content, Product, Communications, and Sales.

- Maintain practical internal guidance for organic and AI search. Educate the teams doing the work on algorithm changes, AI-search developments, tools and results through concise updates and a monthly best-practices session that changes what people do the following week.

DEVELOP THE EXISTING TEAM AND COORDINATE EXECUTION

- Develop the existing organic growth and publishing organization through coaching, clear objectives, and regular feedback. Build stronger analytical judgment, management capability and accountability for completed work.

- Turn the roadmap into clear assignments, realistic timelines and measurable objectives for each person on the team.

- Align priorities with Content Leads and business leaders before work begins. Resolve routine sequencing and staffing tradeoffs within agreed roadmaps and capacity. Escalate conflicts that change portfolio priorities, require additional budget or headcount, or put client commitments at risk to the VP, Content, and the relevant business owner. Bring evidence, options, and a recommendation.

- Present performance, risks, and recommendations to senior leadership.

IMPROVE OPERATIONS AND AUTOMATION

- Manage the Organic Growth tool stack and vendor relationships within the approved budget. Evaluate tools on usefulness, adoption and performance, and recommend renewals or changes supported by measurable value. Obtain leadership approval for additional investment or commitments outside the approved budget.

- Establish clear workflows and quality standards across scoping, publishing, and delivery, while protecting editorial credibility.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR...

- Deep search expertise. You typically have 7+ years in organic growth for a content publisher, affiliate, or lead-generation business. You have a record of translating organic growth into business results, including diagnosing technical issues and responding to major performance changes.

- Practical AI-search experience. You have done AEO and GEO experimentation and measurement (with Profound or a comparable platform). You understand how AI Overviews and LLM answer engines select their sources, and you have a clear view of what the evidence can and cannot prove.

- Hands-on analytical judgment. You work directly in Google Search Console, GA4, Looker Studio, crawl tools such as Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or Semrush, and AI-visibility platforms. You can tell a reporting bug from a ranking loss in hours rather than weeks, and you write remediation plans someone else can execute.

- Technical depth. You understand crawl, indexing, structured data, and CMS platforms such as WordPress well enough to set the roadmap with Engineering and know when a fix is real.

- Team leadership. You have led and developed teams, including managers. You can coordinate specialists across editorial, product, and technical functions, getting priorities agreed before work starts and holding the line when they change.

- Clear communication. You write recommendations that fit on one page and can tell a performance story to senior leadership. You can defend a recommendation while staying close to execution.

- Execution through change. You are comfortable working through ambiguity, implementing agreed priorities and workflows, and helping the existing team adopt new tools and responsibilities. You provide recommendations on capacity and process improvements; broader organizational design and changes to the operating model remain with senior leadership.

BONUS POINTS...

- Experience with sponsorship or advertiser-funded content programs, or in agency and services businesses.

- Experience monetizing organic audiences beyond affiliate revenue through AEO or GEO programs and content partnerships.

- Using AI and automation (for example, n8n, Airtable, or Zapier) to make growth, reporting, or publishing workflows more effective across multiple brands.

- Conference speaking or published thinking on AI search.

- Multi-brand experience across verticals such as home services, insurance, senior care, security, e-commerce, or B2B.

- Experience partnering with editorial teams on content quality, authority, and audience needs.

- Familiarity with discovery opportunities across YouTube, social platforms, and online communities.

SUCCESS IN THIS ROLE LOOKS LIKE...

- Organic growth roadmaps for all 10 brands are live and on track against agreed milestones, with named owners, timelines, and measures of progress. Risks and changes are surfaced early, and overdue work has a documented recovery plan.

- Every signed AI Discovery and sponsorship program has an agreed delivery plan and tracked obligations. Deliverables are completed on time and meet quality standards, with proof of completion available to Sales and Client Services and scope changes approved before execution.

- The team follows a documented process to spot performance changes, diagnose causes, assign prioritized fixes, and verify their impact. Weekly reviews track each action through completion.

- Traditional SEO and AEO experiments run against an agreed test plan, with findings documented and translated into completed content or technical changes.

- Monthly organic reviews produce agreed actions for Content Leads, and content priorities, owners, and deadlines are confirmed before work starts. The Director tracks follow-through.

- Each team member has clear objectives and a development plan. Managers and specialists can independently interpret performance, recommend action, and follow through on their assigned responsibilities.

LIFE AT CENTERFIELD...

- This is a hybrid position, and employees are expected to work in our Playa Vista, CA office every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday

- Competitive salary + semi-annual bonus

- Unlimited PTO – take a break when you need it!

- Industry-leading medical, dental, and vision plans + generous parental leave

- 401(k) company match plan – fully vested on day 1

- Outside patio overlooking Playa Vista + cabanas, firepits & working grills

- Monthly happy hours, catered lunches + daily food trucks

- Award-winning culture & unprecedented team spirit (featured in LA Business Journal & Built In LA)

- Fully stocked kitchens with snacks & drinks

- Breakroom supplied with games, couches, workout equipment + weekly in-office exercise classes hosted by professional instructors (yoga, kickboxing & circuit training)

- Free on-site gym + locker rooms

- Paid charity and volunteer days (local mentor programs, adopt a pet, beach cleanup, etc.)

- Monthly team outings (ball games, casino night, hikes, etc.)

- Career growth – we enjoy promoting from within!

#LI-CC1 #LI-Hybrid

AI & Interview Policy

At Centerfield, we use AI tools internally to support efficiency and fairness in our hiring process, including resume screening and administrative tasks.

Candidates are welcome to use AI tools ethically to prepare for interviews, such as practicing responses or researching questions. However, all responses during the interview process should reflect your own knowledge, experience, and judgment.

The use of AI tools to generate responses during live interviews, technical assessments, or written submissions is not permitted unless explicitly stated otherwise.

To learn more, visit us Here https://www.centerfield.com/about/.

Interviews will take place after resumes have been screened for the minimum requirements. Please note that this position is not restricted solely to the responsibilities listed above and that the job scope and responsibilities are subject to change.

For more information about our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information in connection with our evaluating your candidacy, please visit our Privacy Policy at https://www.centerfield.com/privacy-policy/.

Centerfield Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state or local law.