Lead Search Engine Optimization & AI Search Strategist

What Drives Success

WHAT YOU’LL BE DOING

As a Lead SEO & AI Search Optimization Specialist, you will serve as the company's subject matter expert for search and AI-driven discovery. You will lead SEO, AIO, AEO, and GEO strategy across Lennox's digital ecosystem, partnering closely with marketing, UX, product, content, and engineering teams to drive measurable growth in visibility, traffic, and conversions.

This is a senior individual contributor role that combines strategic ownership, expert guidance, and hands-on execution. You will define roadmaps, guide cross-functional teams, support high-priority optimization work, and elevate the capabilities of SEO, technical, and content partners while ensuring organic and AI search best practices are embedded across digital experiences.

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Own and evolve Lennox's enterprise search and AI discovery strategy across traditional search engines, AI-powered experiences, answer engines, and emerging discovery platforms.
• Serve as the company's lead subject matter expert for SEO, AIO, AEO, GEO, entity optimization, structured content, AI search visibility, large language model discovery, and emerging discovery platforms.
• Build, manage, and communicate SEO and AI search roadmaps that align with business goals, customer needs, digital platform priorities, and measurable performance outcomes.
• Lead Lennox's AI discovery and optimization efforts by improving visibility, citations, answer inclusion, and recommendation presence across AI-powered experiences including ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, AI Overviews, answer engines, and emerging discovery platforms.
• Analyze AI-generated responses, competitive visibility, citation patterns, retrieval behavior, and discovery trends to identify optimization opportunities, measure performance, and design experiments that improve AI discoverability and recommendation frequency.
• Guide technical discoverability strategy by identifying opportunities across technical SEO, structured data, content architecture, entity optimization, site architecture, and AI retrieval readiness while partnering with engineering teams to drive implementation.
• Define, monitor, and report on discoverability KPIs including organic visibility, AI citation frequency, answer inclusion rates, recommendation visibility, share of voice, indexed content health, traffic, engagement, conversions, and other emerging search and AI discovery metrics.
• Monitor evolving customer discovery behaviors across search engines, AI assistants, answer engines, and large language model platforms, translating insights into optimization strategies that improve visibility and customer acquisition.
• Lead content discoverability strategy by guiding how Lennox structures, organizes, and optimizes content to improve organic visibility, entity authority, semantic relevance, AI retrievability, answer inclusion, and conversion performance.
• Partner with product, content, and subject matter experts to strengthen Lennox's authority and discoverability across priority HVAC, indoor air quality, home comfort, energy efficiency, and dealer support topics.
• Translate SEO data, technical findings, industry changes, and competitive insights into clear recommendations for technical teams, business partners, and leadership.
• Influence backlog priorities by shaping SEO, AI discovery, and content optimization requirements, acceptance criteria, and implementation guidance in partnership with product owners, CMS teams, ecommerce teams, and content partners.
• Coach and guide SEO, technical, and content team members through best practices, quality reviews, reusable guidance, and knowledge sharing.
• Translate evolving search and AI discovery trends into practical testing strategies, content recommendations, and optimization opportunities.

WHAT DRIVES SUCCESS

Having the right qualifications is only a part of what it takes to be a successful employee. At Lennox International, we believe in following a set of behaviors and competencies to achieve your full potential. In this position, it is vital that you embody these core competencies:

•  Strategic Search Leadership: You understand that search is no longer limited to search engines. Customer discovery increasingly occurs across AI assistants, answer engines, AI-generated search experiences, and large language model platforms. You connect SEO, AIO, AEO, GEO, structured content, entity authority, customer intent, and business outcomes into a cohesive discoverability strategy.
• Technical and Analytical Expertise: You can interpret complex SEO issues, AI discovery performance signals, platform constraints, and implementation tradeoffs, then translate findings into practical recommendations.
• Collaboration and Influence: You build strong relationships across marketing, product, technology, and business teams. You can influence without direct authority and help partners understand why SEO and AI search considerations matter.
• Ownership and Execution: You are comfortable operating at both strategic and tactical levels. You can define a roadmap, align stakeholders, prioritize work, guide implementation, and step into hands-on analysis or optimization when the situation requires it. You know when to lead through others and when to roll up your sleeves to move important work forward.
• Continuous Learning: You stay current in a rapidly changing search environment. You actively monitor changes in Google, Bing, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, answer engines, and other emerging discovery platforms.

What We Are Looking For

• 8 - 10+ years of experience in SEO, AI search optimization, digital discoverability, content strategy, search analytics, or related search and acquisition disciplines.
• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, communications, business, information systems, digital technology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Working knowledge of how SEO is evolving across AI-powered discovery experiences, including AI Optimization (AIO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), AI Overviews, answer engines, and large language model-driven search experiences.
• Experience evaluating brand visibility across ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, AI Overviews, and similar AI-powered discovery platforms.
• Experience monitoring AI citations, answer visibility, recommendation frequency, and competitive presence across AI-powered discovery platforms.
• Understanding of entity-based search, structured content architecture, knowledge graphs, semantic search, and large language model retrieval patterns.
• Experience designing and testing AIO, AEO, GEO, or related AI search optimization initiatives.
• Strong understanding of modern SEO best practices, including technical SEO, on-page optimization, content strategy, internal linking, site architecture, structured data, Core Web Vitals, and search performance measurement.
• Experience creating and communicating SEO strategies, roadmaps, business cases, prioritization recommendations, content frameworks, technical guidance, and executive-level updates.
• Ability to interpret technical SEO audits, analytics, platform constraints, and content performance data, then translate findings into prioritized recommendations for product, engineering, and content teams.
• Experience using SEO and analytics tools such as Google Search Console, Google Analytics, BrightEdge, Semrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, Google Looker Studio, or similar platforms.
• Familiarity with AI visibility and monitoring platforms such as Profound, Peec AI, Goodie AI, or similar tools.
• Ability to analyze organic search performance and connect SEO activity to business outcomes such as traffic, engagement, lead generation, ecommerce activity, support deflection, or conversion.
• Experience influencing Agile, product, or backlog-driven environments, including shaping requirements, acceptance criteria, prioritization, and implementation guidance through product owners and delivery teams.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to present recommendations, risks, tradeoffs, and results to technical teams, business partners, and leadership.
• Experience coaching or guiding SEO, technical, or content team members.
• HVAC, manufacturing, B2B, dealer/distributor, or ecommerce experience is a plus.

What We Offer

Compensation: This is a salaried exempt role. The starting salary range for this role and market is between $124,800 - $163,800 annually. Factors that may affect starting salary include geography/market and the skills, education, experience, and other qualifications of the successful candidate. Employees in this role are also eligible for an annual bonus in accordance with the terms of the Company’s applicable plan. Employees in this role are not eligible for overtime.

Benefits: Subject to applicable eligibility requirements, the following benefits are offered for this role: tuition reimbursement; medical, dental, and vision insurance; prescription drug coverage; 401(k) retirement plan; short-term disability insurance; 8 weeks paid birthing leave; 2 weeks paid bonding leave; life and long-term disability insurance.

Depending on date of hire, and subject to applicable eligibility requirements, new employees in this role also receive up to: 12 days paid time off, 2 paid well-being days, 1 paid volunteer day, 12 paid holidays, and 3 floating holidays per year.

Our Culture: At Lennox, our Core Values of Integrity, Respect & Excellence are ingrained in the fabric of the organization. They define our culture – which is about how we do business and how we treat others. Lennox is not just a workplace; we are a global community that values each team member’s contributions. As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to recruit, develop, and retain talented individuals from a wide range of backgrounds, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to succeed and contribute to our continued growth and success. At Lennox, you’ll take pride in our brands, knowing you are part of something special. Come, stay, and grow with us! 

Disclaimers: The compensation and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Lennox reserves the right to modify this information at any time, with or without notice, subject to applicable law.

We may use automated tools, including artificial intelligence, to support parts of our hiring process, such as application review and interview scheduling. These tools assist our teams but do not replace human decision-making. If you need an accommodation or have questions, please contact [email protected].

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Who We Are

Lennox (NYSE: LII) Driven by 130 years of legacy, HVAC and refrigeration success, Lennox provides our residential and commercial customers with industry-leading climate-control solutions. At Lennox, we win as a team, aiming for excellence and delivering innovative, sustainable products and services. Our culture guides us and creates a workplace where all employees feel heard and welcomed. Lennox is a global community that values each team member’s contributions and offers a supportive environment for career development. Come, stay, and grow with us.