Head of SEO, AI & Content

Location: Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, SL8 5YS  (Hybrid – min. 2 days in office)
Reporting to: CCO

We’re looking for a commercially driven, forward-thinking Head of SEO, AI & Content to lead our organic growth strategy at Virgin Experience Days.

This is a pivotal leadership role responsible for defining and delivering a best-in-class organic ecosystem spanning SEO performance, AI-readiness (including LLMs and emerging search behaviours), and high-impact content creation. You will own the strategic direction and take a hands-on role in the execution of how customers discover, engage with, and choose our experiences.

You will work cross-functionally with Trading, Commercial, Product, Tech, and Marketing teams to maximise visibility, conversion, and revenue. This role combines high-level strategic leadership with the ability to "roll up the sleeves" and execute - with line management responsibility and full accountability for organic performance, reporting, and measurable commercial impact.

Why we want you

Organic search is a critical revenue driver for our business, and the landscape is evolving rapidly. We need a leader who can:

• Drive Commercial Outcomes: Lead a best-in-class SEO performance cycle with clear, measurable revenue targets.

• Be a Content Visionary: Elevate our copy and visual storytelling, ensuring content drives the full funnel from "inspiration" to "buying."

• Act as an AI Pioneer: Understand how LLMs are changing user intent and prepare us for the next generation of generative search.

• Zoom-In/Zoom-Out: Debate the nuances of Schema markup or edit a high-performing blog post one hour, then pivot to present a long-term commercial roadmap to the C-suite the next.

• Foster Accountability: Create a performance-led culture underpinned by clear KPIs and actionable data storytelling.

Strategy, Leadership & Commercial Ownership

• Define the Organic Roadmap: Own the strategy across SEO, AI, and content, ensuring it is aligned with business revenue targets and the Virgin brand voice.

• Stakeholder Influence: Act as the senior expert for organic performance, partnering with Trading and Commercial teams to embed SEO thinking into product launches and seasonal trading cycles.

• Team & Agency Development: Lead, develop, and grow a high-performing team of specialists, while managing external agencies to ensure they deliver maximum strategic value.

• Performance & Accountability:

  • Organic revenue growth (YoY and vs forecast)

  • Traffic growth and search visibility across priority categories

  • Conversion performance from organic channels

  • Content effectiveness (engagement, conversion, assisted revenue)

  • Technical SEO health and site performance improvements

  • Progress against AI and LLM readiness roadmap

  • Conduct competitor and market analysis to identify growth opportunities and risks

  • Drive a culture of continuous testing, learning, and optimisation to improve ROI

• E-E-A-T Leadership: Build a long-term "Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trust" roadmap to ensure we remain the primary source of truth in the gifting industry.

Technical SEO & Performance

• Technical Health: Partner with Product and Tech teams to lead the technical roadmap (crawlability, indexation, Core Web Vitals, and Schema).

• Data Storytelling: Own the organic reporting suite (GA4, Looker Studio), translating complex data into simple, decision-driving insights for senior stakeholders.

Content & Creative Excellence

• Editorial Vision: Oversee the creation of category, product, and editorial content, ensuring best-in-class copywriting and visual storytelling.

• Direct Execution: Take a hands-on approach to content production where required, ensuring copy is inspirational, authoritative, and optimized for conversion.

• Visual Discovery: Lead a visual content strategy (imagery and video) that optimizes for "Discovery" search, Pinterest, and increasingly visual SERPs.

• Efficiency & Scalability: Improve "Time to Market" for content by implementing AI-assisted workflows and sophisticated production processes.

AI & Search Innovation

• Generative Engine Optimization): Define how we optimize for LLMs and AI Overviews, ensuring our brand is cited in conversational search.

• AI-Enhanced Workflows: Leverage AI tools to automate manual SEO tasks and scale content production without sacrificing quality.

• Future-Proofing: Proactively adapt site architecture to thrive in a world of Search Generative Experiences (SGE).

Experience & Technical Skills

• Senior Leadership: Significant experience leading SEO/Content functions, ideally in high-SKU e-commerce or travel/leisure environments.

• Content Mastery: A "content-first" mindset with proven experience in digital storytelling and managing end-to-end content lifecycles.

• Technical Fluency: Deep expertise in technical SEO (Schema, Site Architecture) and a sophisticated understanding of AI/LLM search algorithms.

• Commercial Gravity: Comfortable owning a revenue target and articulating the ROI of organic investment to non-marketing stakeholders.

• Tool Kit: Expert knowledge of Search Console, Screaming Frog, SEMrush/Ahrefs, GA4, and Looker Studio.

Mindset

• Strategic & Tactical: Able to operate at a high strategic level while remaining happy to execute hands-on tasks to get the job done.

• Collaborative: Ability to break down silos and work seamlessly with Tech, Product, and Trading teams.

• Innovative: Passionate about staying ahead of industry change and driving a culture of continuous testing and learning.

• Time for you: 25 days holiday plus bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell up to 2 days each year

• Freedom to work your way: 2 days in-office (Tuesdays a mandatory in-office day), Flexi-working hours around our core 10-4, so your day works for you (8.5 hours per day)

• Wellbeing that works: Access to an award-winning employee assistance programme; Health Plan cover (plus family add-ons) with cash back for a variety of health & wellbeing costs; Cycle to Work and Electric Vehicle schemes (post probation).

• Future proofing you (and your finances): Company pension (5% you, 3% us) after 3 months; Discretionary bonus and life assurance after probation.

• Giving back & all the anti-ordinary extras: 2 volunteer days each year; Free breakfast when in the office; Personal re-loadable multi-choice gift card (topped up on your birthday, lifetime milestones and internal celebrations); Yearly £150 experience voucher; Discounts on experiences and across the Virgin Group; Refer a Friend bonus and generous team celebrations throughout the year.