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Role Overview: We are looking for a Senior Manager / Group Head – SEO to lead and scale the SEO function at Havas COE. This role is both strategic and hands-on, requiring deep expertise across technical SEO, content-led growth, authority building, and emerging AI-driven search ecosystems. You will be responsible for owning the SEO practice end-to-end—from strategy and delivery to team leadership, client growth, and P&L ownership. The ideal candidate has strong agency experience, has worked with multiple clients across geographies, and is comfortable operating as a trusted SEO advisor for senior stakeholders.Key Responsibilities: Leadership & Practice Ownership Act as the SEO thought leader and subject-matter expert for clients and internal stakeholders across the network. Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing SEO team; define roles, career paths, and performance benchmarks. Conduct regular training, knowledge-sharing sessions, and playbook updates to keep the team aligned with industry and platform changes. Establish and continuously improve SEO processes, frameworks, and best practices to ensure scalable and consistent delivery. Client & Stakeholder Management Serve as the primary point of contact for SEO clients across markets, ensuring high levels of satisfaction, trust, and retention. Own client expectation management, performance communication, and issue resolution. Partner with internal teams (content, tech, product, analytics, media) to ensure SEO is integrated across initiatives. Present SEO strategies, performance insights, and recommendations clearly to senior client stakeholders. Strategy, Delivery & Innovation Plan, build, and execute holistic SEO strategies to drive sustainable organic growth across traditional search and AI-powered search environments. Guide the team in conducting advanced technical SEO audits, covering crawlability, indexation, site architecture, Core Web Vitals, structured data, and rendering issues. Oversee content and on-page optimization strategies grounded in search intent, entity-based SEO, EEAT principles, and performance data. Lead off-page SEO initiatives, including digital PR, authority-building, link acquisition, and brand mention strategies. Develop and evolve strategies aligned with GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and LLM-driven search experiences. Stay ahead of algorithm updates, AI search shifts, and platform changes, translating them into actionable strategies. Growth, Pitches & P&L Collaborate with sales and leadership teams to nurture leads, develop SEO proposals, and participate in pitches. Define SEO scopes, pricing models, delivery approaches, and success metrics for new business. Own SEO P&L, including revenue growth, cost optimization, utilization, and margin improvement. Identify opportunities to expand SEO engagements into adjacent offerings (content, CRO, analytics, ASO, etc.). Data, Reporting & Measurement Partner with data & analytics team to design, maintain, and evolve SEO dashboards using GA4 and Looker Studio. Monitor KPIs such as organic traffic, rankings, visibility, conversions, and revenue impact. Perform in-depth SEO data analysis to uncover trends, risks, and growth opportunities. Deliver clear, insight-led performance reports with actionable recommendations for clients and internal leadership.Requirements & Eligibility: 8–12 years of proven SEO experience (agency and/or in-house); agency experience strongly preferred. Demonstrated experience leading SEO teams and managing multiple clients. Strong exposure to global clients and multi-market SEO strategies. Proven experience in proposal development, pitching, and P&L ownership. Deep expertise across technical SEO, on-page/content optimization, and off-page SEO. Hands-on experience with site architecture, performance optimization, and complex technical implementations. Solid understanding of GEO, AEO, AI-driven search, and evolving search interfaces. Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate data into strategic recommendations. Advanced experience with SEO and analytics tools including GA4, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, Semrush, Screaming Frog, and related platforms. Excellent project management, communication, and stakeholder management skills. Ability to balance strategic leadership with hands-on problem-solving when required.Good to Have: Experience managing Local SEO programs, including Google Business Profile (GMB) optimization. Exposure to ASO (App Store Optimization) and YouTube SEO. Experience with Amazon SEO or marketplace search optimization. Familiarity with CRO, UX, or experimentation frameworks as they relate to organic growth.About Havas Media Network India Havas Media Network India is a media conglomerate that operates within a global framework – Mx – to drive Media Experiences and invest in Meaningful Media to build Meaningful Brands. The network offers a wide range of integrated marketing solutions covering strategy, media planning & buying, PR, social media, mobile, sports & entertainment, data, research & analytics services across traditional and digital media. It consists of media networks – Havas Media, PivotRoots and Arena Media, and specialist brands – Havas Market (e-commerce), Havas Play (entertainment, gaming, sports and fandom), Havas Play Gameplan (sports marketing), Havas Programmatic Hub (programmatic trading desk), Havas Analytics (data & analytics), Socialyse (social media), KlugKlug (influencer marketing) & Havas Media Tribes (out-of-home).For more information, visitfollow Havas Media Network on social media.About Havas Founded in 1835 in Paris, Havas is one of the world’s largest global communications networks, with more than 22,000 people in over 100 countries sharing one single mission: to make a meaningful difference to brands, businesses, and people. Havas has developed a fully integrated model through its 70+ Havas Villages around the world, covering all communication activities. The teams of the three business units, Havas Creative Network, Havas Media Network and Havas Health & You, work together with agility and in perfect synergy to offer tailor-made, innovative solutions to clients that support them in their positive transformation. Havas is committed to building a diverse culture where everybody feels they belong and can be themselves and thrive. Havas integrated into Vivendi, a global leader in media, entertainment, and communications, in December 2017.Further information about Havas is available at .About Havas India Havas India gathers the expertise of 21 agencies, specialised divisions and strategic alliances across 3 verticals: Havas Media Network – Havas Media, PivotRoots (integrated digital), Arena Media, Havas Market (e-commerce), Havas Play (sports, entertainment & content), Havas Programmatic Hub (programmatic trading desk), Havas Analytics (data & analytics), Socialyse (pure play social media); strategic alliances: Havas Media Tribes (out-of-home), Havas Play Gameplan (sports marketing) and KlugKlug (influencer tech stack) Havas Creative Network – Havas Worldwide India (creative), Havas People India (talent communications & employer branding), Havas CX India (customer experience), ekino (technology consulting & digital deployment), Think Design (UX/UI), Shobiz (experiential marketing), Shobiz Exhibits (exhibitions) Conran Design Group Mumbai (branding & design), PR Pundit Havas Red (PR), and Prose on Pixels (content-at-scale) Havas Health & You – Havas Life Mumbai(health & wellness communications)With its unique Village model, it is an integrated network present across 3 Villages in Mumbai, Gurgaon and Bengaluru, and regional offices in Kolkata, New Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai, with over 2000+ professionals and associates.As one of India’s fastest growing and agile networks, Havas India has bagged multiple new clients across verticals and won several prestigious awards over the last 2 years including the group being Great Place To Work® Certified™ twice in a row (Nov 2022 - Nov 2023 & Dec 2023 – Dec 2024), consistently being featured in the top 3 at R3 New Business League rankings, and winning at Campaign Asia-Pacific Agency of the Year awards, e4m Indian Marketing Awards 2023, ABBY One Show 2023, Campaign Women Leading Change awards, and more. Our CSR programs, DE&I initiatives, and being actively involved in various industry associations is what keeps us invested as a network that has a clear mission of making a meaningful difference to brands, businesses and people.Here at Havas across the group we pride ourselves on being committed to offering equal opportunities to all potential employees and have zero tolerance for discrimination. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applicants irrespective of age, sex, race, ethnicity, disability and other factors that have no bearing on an individual’s ability to perform their job.For more information, visitfollow Havas India on social media.