Director, Search and Visibility

JLL empowers you to shape a brighter way.  

Our people at JLL are shaping the future of real estate for a better world by combining world class services, advisory and technology for our clients. We are committed to hiring the best, most talented people and empowering them to thrive, grow meaningful careers and to find a place where they belong.  Whether you’ve got deep experience in commercial real estate, skilled trades or technology, or you’re looking to apply your relevant experience to a new industry, join our team as we help shape a brighter way forward.   

About the Role

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.

What You'll Own

Strategy, Vision & Global-to-Local Execution

• 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. This is one global standard applied with local nuance, not a decentralized strategy that varies market by market.

• 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.

Governance, Measurement & Center of Excellence

• 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.

Executive Leadership & Team Development

• 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.

Cross-Functional Integration & Content Ecosystem

• 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.

 

Required Qualifications

• 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• 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.

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How This Role will Succeed

Success in this role is a portfolio of signals tracked together, not any single metric in isolation. Leaders in this space are optimizing for a combination of visibility, authority and trust indicators, and this role is expected to understand and manage that full picture.

• Measurable growth in LLM mentions, citations and share of voice against key industry competitors.

• Movement in brand sentiment within AI-generated answers and summaries, not just frequency of appearance.

• Clear enterprise standards and repeatable SEO, GEO and AEO processes, with stronger coordination across teams that previously worked in isolation.

• A high-performing, scalable team and operating model that other business lines actively seek out rather than route around.

• A clear strategic narrative and roadmap that senior leadership references when making investment and resource decisions.

This position does not provide visa sponsorship. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.

Estimated compensation for this position:

140,000.00 – 165,000.00 USD per year

This range is an estimate and actual compensation may differ. Final compensation packages are determined by various considerations including but not limited to candidate qualifications, location, market conditions, and internal considerations.

Location:

On-site –Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, New York, NY

If this job description resonates with you, we encourage you to apply, even if you don’t meet all the requirements.  We’re interested in getting to know you and what you bring to the table!

Personalized benefits that support personal well-being and growth:

JLL recognizes the impact that the workplace can have on your wellness, so we offer a supportive culture and comprehensive benefits package that prioritizes mental, physical and emotional health. Some of these benefits may include:

• 401(k) plan with matching company contributions

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental & Vision Care

• Paid parental leave at 100% of salary 

• Paid Time Off and Company Holidays

• Early access to earned wages through Daily Pay

At JLL, we harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to efficiently accelerate meaningful connections between candidates and opportunities. Using AI capabilities, we analyze your application for relevant skills, experiences, and qualifications to generate valuable insights about how your unique profile aligns with the specific requirements of the role you're pursuing.

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