Head of SEO & AEO

About N4 Studio

N4 Studio is Webflow's #1 global agency partner. We're a team of around 60 people working out of hubs in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US, with contractors across the globe. We design and build on Webflow for clients around the world and run ongoing retainers covering SEO, AEO, CRO and site optimisation. SEO and AEO is one of the fastest-growing parts of our business, and we're investing seriously in it.

The role

This is a hands-on leadership role. You'll set the strategic direction for SEO and Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) across our client base, and you'll have two people supporting delivery, one in Auckland on retainers, one offshore on migrations. But this isn't a role where you only direct: you'll still get into the detail yourself. Running audits, doing keyword research, digging into a technical issue, briefing developers directly, jumping into a migration when it needs an extra pair of hands. Think player-coach rather than purely strategic oversight.

Scope: this role covers CMS-based SEO and AEO (Webflow only). No ecommerce SEO experience required.

What you'll own

• Strategy and direction: set the approach for SEO and AEO across N4's client accounts, and make sure it's actually being delivered well day to day, not just on paper.
• Hands-on delivery: personally run audits, keyword research and technical SEO work when it matters, brief developers and designers on what needs to happen, and step into migration work yourself when the offshore specialist needs backup or the timeline is tight.
• Retainer growth: drive the strategic direction of our SEO/AEO retainer book (currently around 10-15 active retainers), spotting where we should expand scope, upsell, or change how we deliver.
• Team leadership: manage your two direct reports day to day, and shape how the wider function is structured as it grows.
• Reporting and process: overhaul how we report back to clients and how delivery runs internally, including where AI tools genuinely remove manual effort rather than just adding another dashboard.
• AEO tooling and monitoring: choose and run the right stack for tracking brand visibility across AI answer engines (tools like Profound, Otterly.ai, Peec AI or AthenaHQ, alongside Ahrefs Brand Radar or Semrush's AI toolkit), and translate that into decisions clients can act on.
• Enablement: be the go-to person across the business for SEO/AEO questions and training, up-skilling other teams on the fundamentals.
• Sales support: help the team pitch SEO/AEO scope to prospective clients, shaping positioning and sometimes joining calls directly, without owning the pitch process yourself.
• Service design: evolve how we package SEO/AEO within our retainer model. The core offering exists already; this is about refining it over time.
• Migrations and go-lives: own the process for clean, seamless Webflow migration go-lives, reviewing your offshore specialist's work and pitching in on execution when needed.
• Strategic workshops: improve how we run early-stage strategy on new projects, currently fairly simple keyword research, with room to make it sharper and more consistent.

What we're looking for

• Solid, proven SEO experience, plus real working knowledge of AEO, not someone who's bolted AEO on as a buzzword.
• Comfortable being genuinely hands-on: this role will run audits and keyword research personally, not just review other people's work.
• Some experience managing or mentoring at least a small team, and comfortable giving direction to developers and designers on technical and on-page changes.
• Daily, practical use of AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or similar) in your own workflow, plus familiarity with dedicated AEO monitoring tools such as Profound, Otterly.ai, Peec AI or AthenaHQ.
• Strong working knowledge of the core toolkit: Ahrefs or Semrush, Screaming Frog, GA4, Google Search Console, and reporting tools like Looker Studio.
• Experience with, or strong interest in, Webflow or other modern CMS platforms.
• Nice to have: basic comfort with data and tracking setups (GA4, GTM, and reading dashboards), even if you're not the one building the tracking.