AVP, SEO Mena
WPP Media · Dubai
About WPP Media
WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth.
WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working.
For more information, visit wppmedia.com.
We are looking for a commercially minded, inspirational leader to serve as AVP, SEO MENA and head up our regional SEO practice.
This is a senior leadership role with accountability for the full performance of the department: running the business, evolving our SEO product and point of view, developing exceptional talent, driving new business, and integrating SEO with our broader network of practices.
You will be responsible for building a high-performing, future-ready SEO organization that delivers measurable growth for clients and sustainable commercial results for WPP Media. As the senior regional voice for SEO, you will work closely with executive leadership, major clients, and leaders across content, paid media, data and analytics, technology, UX, creative, CRM, social, and PR.
Key Responsibilities
Run the SEO Business
- Set the regional vision, strategy, and annual operating plan for SEO.
- Own the practice’s revenue, profitability, forecasting, utilization, resourcing, and growth targets.
- Establish the operating model, governance, processes, and quality standards required to deliver excellent work at scale.
- Maintain a clear view of business performance, risks, opportunities, and investment priorities.
- Ensure the right balance between client delivery, team capacity, innovation, and commercial performance.
- Build strong relationships with senior client stakeholders and act as an executive escalation point when required.
- Improve client retention, satisfaction, account growth, and long-term value.
- Ensure SEO work is strategically relevant, operationally excellent, and connected to measurable business outcomes.
Evolve the SEO Product
- Define and advance WPP’s regional SEO proposition, positioning, and market differentiation.
- Build a clear product roadmap covering areas such as technical SEO, content strategy, digital PR and authority, enterprise SEO, local and commerce SEO, measurement, experimentation, and emerging search experiences.
- Lead the evolution of SEO in response to AI-generated search experiences, changing search behavior, automation, structured data, entities, and new discovery platforms.
- Develop scalable methodologies, tools, frameworks, playbooks, and intellectual property that improve both client outcomes and team efficiency.
- Partner with global product, technology, data, and delivery teams to industrialize and improve our SEO capabilities.
- Create compelling case studies, points of view, thought leadership, and market-facing materials.
- Ensure our SEO offering is easy to understand, commercially viable, differentiated, and connected to clients’ broader growth agendas.
Develop Talent and Culture
- Lead, coach, and inspire the regional SEO leadership team and broader department.
- Design and evolve the organization to meet current and future business needs.
- Attract, hire, retain, and develop high-caliber SEO talent at all levels.
- Establish clear career pathways, capability expectations, performance standards, and succession plans.
- Build a culture of accountability, collaboration, inclusion, continuous learning, and high-quality work.
- Identify emerging leaders and create opportunities for them to grow their leadership, client, and commercial skills.
- Partner with People/HR leadership on workforce planning, performance management, compensation, and engagement.
- Ensure the team is continuously developing its technical, strategic, consulting, and commercial capabilities.
Drive New Business and Growth
- Take an active leadership role in regional business development, including pipeline development, pitches, proposals, RFPs, and client presentations.
- Build relationships with senior marketers, digital leaders, procurement stakeholders, industry influencers, and strategic partners.
- Identify opportunities to grow SEO within existing accounts and to create new integrated offerings with other practices.
- Develop sector- and market-specific growth strategies and ensure the SEO team is visible in priority pursuits.
- Work with commercial and account leadership to improve win rates, pricing, scope, and profitability.
- Serve as a credible senior voice in the market through conferences, events, media, content, and industry engagement.
- Establish partnerships and alliances that strengthen [Company]’s SEO proposition and access to new opportunities.
Integrate Across Practices
- Make SEO a connected part of the wider client growth agenda rather than a standalone discipline.
- Build effective ways of working with content, paid media, data and analytics, technology, UX/CX, creative, CRM, social, PR, and strategy teams.
- Create integrated propositions, account plans, delivery teams, and go-to-market initiatives.
- Encourage shared ownership of client outcomes and cross-practice revenue.
- Ensure SEO is considered early in strategic, brand, digital, content, technology, and customer experience planning.
- Resolve organizational barriers and create a collaborative, matrixed environment across regional and global teams.
- Represent SEO in senior regional leadership forums and contribute to broader business strategy.
What You Bring
- Significant experience in SEO, organic growth, digital marketing, or a closely related discipline, typically gained in an agency, consultancy, technology company, or complex in-house environment.
- Demonstrated experience leading a substantial SEO team, department, regional practice, or business unit.
- A strong understanding of modern SEO across technical, content, authority, analytics, and commercial dimensions.
- A clear perspective on the future of search, including generative AI, AI Overviews, answer engines, automation, and evolving user behavior.
- Experience in contributing to an operating plan, revenue target, margin target, or similar commercial responsibilities.
- A track record of winning and growing enterprise or high-value client relationships.
- Experience developing products, propositions, methodologies, or scalable service offerings.
- Strong executive presence and the ability to influence clients, internal leaders, and multidisciplinary teams.
- A proven record of hiring, developing, and motivating high-performing talent.
- Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and commercial skills.
- The ability to operate strategically while maintaining sufficient knowledge of delivery realities and technical detail.
- A collaborative, entrepreneurial, and pragmatic leadership style.
How Success Will Be Measured
Success in this role will include:
- Sustainable growth in regional SEO revenue, profitability, and client value.
- A strong, differentiated, and commercially successful SEO product offering.
- Increased cross-practice collaboration and integrated revenue.
- High levels of client satisfaction, retention, and account expansion.
- A capable leadership bench and an engaged, high-performing SEO team.
- Improved talent attraction, development, retention, and succession.
- A healthy new-business pipeline and strong contribution to strategic wins.
- Consistent delivery quality, operational discipline, and scalable ways of working.
- A strong external reputation for WPP’s SEO expertise and point of view.