The mission of The New York Times is to seek the truth and help people understand the world. That means independent journalism is at the heart of all we do as a company. It’s why we have a world-renowned newsroom that sends journalists to report on the ground from nearly 160 countries. It’s why we focus deeply on how our readers will experience our journalism, from print to audio to a world-class digital and app destination. And it’s why our business strategy centers on making journalism so good that it’s worth paying for. 

Note for US based roles: Any offer of employment is contingent on providing proof of Covid-19 vaccination prior to your start date, subject to approved medical and/or religious exemptions, in accordance with applicable law.

Job Description

The SEO team at The New York Times plays an essential role in reaching and growing our biggest audience channel: Organic search. Our team is responsible for both defining and executing the technical SEO strategy work on nytimes.com, theathletic.com, cooking.nytimes.com. The technical arm of the SEO team partners closely with engineers and project leads on the product side to ensure the latest technical SEO best practices are in place, the site’s technical health is sound, and other teams across the company are following Google’s guidelines.

We are looking to grow our technical SEO team and are in search of an experienced candidate to help drive more search success and solve complex SEO problems. You will be responsible for improving The New York Times and The Athletic’s search visibility by enhancing our products’ technical capabilities and performance. You will analyze search performance, develop search strategies, and lead initiatives to grow search. Your work will not only guide product thinking and implementation, but it will continue to elevate The New York Times and The Athletic as the gold standard in SEO.

This role is a highly cross functional role with visibility across several departments with the primary responsibility of creating a Technical SEO culture and setting a strategic technical direction. The Technical SEO manager will report to the Sr. Director of technical search.

Responsibilities Include

• Partner with the SEO technical team to identify strategic search projects for cross-functional digital teams (engineering, design, product)

• Project manage the execution of technical SEO initiatives on The New York Times and The Athletic aimed at improving our search visibility, working in close collaboration with engineers and product leads

• Perform ongoing technical audits; identifying enhancements, bugs, and fixes, and filing them in JIRA

• Develop and monitor bespoke dashboards and tools used to track various SEO projects and initiatives

• Provide regular reporting (weekly and monthly) on our search performance, highlighting trends across all Google surfaces, including Google Search, Google News and Google Discover

• Monitor and benchmark competitors in the sports and news space, looking at different technical aspects of their site for insights and inspiration

• Keep a pulse on Google’s search ecosystem. Stay up-to-date on the latest Google changes including algorithm updates, bugs, new requirements, and new features

• Provide real-time technical support and monitoring of major sporting events.

Qualifications

• A minimum of 4 years of SEO experience; with heavy emphasis on the technical side while deeply understanding the landscape of the Web and be committed to interpreting and responding to data

• Ability to sit at the intersection of current technical search best practices and the implementation details to achieve them

• Experience translating between technical and non-technical partners and stakeholders, and helping to weigh the impact of technical SEO work on UX and Audience

• Extensive knowledge of multiple industry-leading SEO tools (Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, etc)

• A thorough comprehension of Schema.org, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, HTTP status codes and web standards

The annual base pay range for this role is between $90,000.00 and $110,000.00. 

The New York Times is committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce, one that reflects the varied global community we serve. Our journalism and the products we build in the service of that journalism greatly benefit from a range of perspectives, which can only come from diversity of all types, across our ranks, at all levels of the organization. Achieving true diversity and inclusion is the right thing to do. It is also the smart thing for our business. So we strongly encourage women, veterans, people with disabilities, people of color and gender nonconforming candidates to apply.

The New York Times Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of an individual's sex, age, race, color, creed, national origin, alienage, religion, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity and expression, disability, genetic trait or predisposition, carrier status, citizenship, veteran or military status and other personal characteristics protected by law. All applications will receive consideration for employment without regard to legally protected characteristics. The New York Times Company will provide reasonable accommodations as required by applicable federal, state, and/or local laws, and will consider qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable "Fair Chance" laws.