Senior Search Marketing Manager

EF Education First · Boston · $100,000–$115,000 (stated in the posting)

EF Student Tours is seeking a driven, collaborative, growth-oriented Senior Manager, Search to join our Growth Marketing team.

In this role, you’ll own search performance end to end—paid search (PPC), AI search and discovery, and organic search strategy in partnership with stakeholders. You’ll lead acquisition strategy, evaluate and test AI search experiences, and work across teams to turn search intent into useful, high-performing digital experiences. Your work will help grow qualified traffic, improve conversion, and accelerate customer growth across EF Educational Tours (ET), EF Explore America (EA), and EF Tours for Girls (TFG).

Who we are

The Growth Marketing team is customer-first, growth-minded, and collaboration-forward. We develop strategies and solutions that help more students and teachers explore the world—and bring us closer to making travel-based learning essential to education.

Responsibilities

Own search growth across paid, organic, and AI discovery

Own the search acquisition strategy and performance roadmap across paid search, organic search, and AI search, aligned to growth goals and conversion targets.
Serve as the day-to-day search owner and strategic lead, partnering with web and content stakeholders on visibility, intent coverage, and landing-page relevance.
Align search plans with paid media, organic, and owned-channel strategies.
Build performance narratives, forecasts, and priorities for leadership, connecting search activity to business outcomes.

Lead AI search and discovery strategy

Own EF’s AI search and discovery strategy. Track how ChatGPT Search, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot shape customer discovery and search behavior.
Evaluate platform experiences, user journeys, competitive activity, and advertising products; turn findings into recommendations, priorities, and a practical roadmap.
Partner with SEO, content, web, analytics, and marketing teams to improve EF’s visibility and usefulness in AI-driven discovery.
Establish measurement using indicators such as brand mentions and citations, share of voice or visibility, referral sessions, engagement, conversions, and lead quality. Use tools such as Google Search Console, GA4, and relevant AI-visibility monitoring platforms.
Build and own a test roadmap for paid opportunities in AI search. Design pilots with clear hypotheses, budgets, success measures, and readouts as advertising products launch.
Recommend whether to scale, refine, or stop tests based on results, and share learnings to guide investment and strategy.

Lead paid search strategy and execution (Google and Microsoft)

Manage, review, and optimize Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising accounts across EF Educational Tours, EF Explore America, and EF Tours for Girls.
Own campaign structure, targeting, audience development, and keyword strategy, including building and maintaining large keyword lists.
Manage bids, budget caps, impression share, Quality Score, and other efficiency and growth metrics.
Identify and execute opportunities across campaign types and features, including keyword expansion, match strategy, audience development, testing, and incremental acquisition.
Use paid and organic traffic strategically to maximize paid-media investment and overall search performance.

Improve website and landing-page conversion

Partner with web, UX, analytics, and creative teams to ensure the website experience reflects search intent and improves conversion at each step of the journey.
Own a continuous conversion rate optimization (CRO) practice for search traffic, including the landing-page testing plan, hypothesis development, test design, and performance readouts.
Use search queries, audience behavior, and on-site analytics to improve page content, messaging, user experience, and technical performance.
Ensure landing pages support SEO and paid-search performance through relevance, speed, mobile usability, clarity, and effective conversion paths.

Lead measurement and cross-functional execution

Work with business analytics, media, marketing strategy, and web teams to assess historical and current performance and recommend future strategies and optimizations.
Deliver regular reporting across paid, organic, and AI search tests and on-site conversion metrics—what happened, why it happened, and what comes next.
Manage timelines, testing calendars, and stakeholder communications to keep search and website workstreams moving.

Skills and qualifications

6+ years of experience owning and executing paid-search campaigns in Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising.
Hands-on experience evaluating and testing AI search and discovery experiences, such as ChatGPT Search, Google AI Overviews or AI Mode, Perplexity, or Microsoft Copilot, and translating findings into an actionable strategy.
Experience using AI-driven paid-search capabilities, such as Performance Max, Smart Bidding, and platform automation, to manage campaigns, test strategies, and improve performance.
Demonstrated experience managing moderate- to large-scale paid-search accounts with a focus on conversions and revenue outcomes.
Strong track record of CRO and landing-page improvement through structured testing and iteration.
Experience partnering with or influencing SEO strategy—including technical, content, and on-page optimization—to improve organic performance.
Strong analytical skills and comfort using data to diagnose performance and prioritize opportunities, including traffic quality, conversion funnels, and intent signals.
Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
Comfort working in a test-and-learn environment with clear hypotheses, measurement plans, and readouts.
Excellent organizational, project-management, and time-management skills.
Adaptability and effectiveness in a fast-paced, changing environment.
Strong interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across analytics, creative, web, and SEO teams.

Bonus points for

A connection to EF’s mission of opening the world through education.
An enthusiastic, hands-on approach and willingness to jump in and get things done.
Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising certifications.
Curiosity and enthusiasm for tackling new challenges.
Confidence making decisions and generating ideas.
Openness to asking for help and welcoming feedback.
Experience with AI-search visibility measurement, generative-engine optimization, or paid advertising pilots in AI-driven discovery environments.

Why you’ll love working here: Perks, Benefits, and more!

This is the most fun, high caliber place you’ll ever work. Ask any employee why they love EF (whether they’ve been here 10 minutes or 10 years) and they’ll probably tell you the same thing: it’s the people. When you work at EF, you join a purpose-driven, international and energetic community that thrives on continuous learning, fearless innovation and mutual support.

In addition, you can expect:

Commitment to professional growth: robust monthly calendar of trainings and workshops
Four weeks paid vacation your first year, ten paid holidays, and two floating holidays
Exciting business travel opportunities
25% company match on your 401(k) contributions
Market-leading medical, dental and vision coverage, along with options for life and disability insurance, accident and hospital insurance, legal and pet insurance
Dependent care, healthcare and commuter Flex Spending Accounts (FSAs)
Access to fertility care and family-building support
Wellness benefits including a yearly fitness reimbursement
Frequent social and learning events, including access to our employee-run resource groups
Robust Employee Assistance Program
Tenure-based sabbatical eligibility
EF Product Discounts (discounts on travel, international language schools, Au Pair program and more)
Discounts at local venues and businesses
Amazing offices designed to match the caliber of the people who work there, plus the flexibility of working from home one day a week.
Compensation range for this role is $100,000-$115,000 per year, based on experience

Not sure you meet every qualification?

Let us decide. Research shows that women and members of underrepresented groups may be less likely to apply when they don’t meet every listed qualification. We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team, and we strongly encourage you to apply.

Some companies are in the business of banking. Others are in the business of shoes. Or sports. Or soft drinks. At EF, we're in a different kind of business. One that's a little less tangible, and a lot more important. Because our business, what we make, makes everything else possible. We're in the business of understanding. Between people. Between cultures.

For over half a century we’ve been the leader in international educational programs and experiences designed to foster such understanding. Through language, cultural exchange, academic studies, and educational travel, we create the kinds of immersive experiences that challenge biases, open minds, and pave the way for a more understanding world.

You’ll find our offices and schools located in some of the world’s greatest cities, and filled with smart, driven people (over 50,000 of us) who push each other to be better every day. But it’s what we do together - building greater understanding, breaking down barriers, and creating a better world - that makes all the difference.

Founded in 1965 in Sweden, EF (Education First) is a global association of education companies that share a common mission of opening the world through education. EF has been recognized on Forbes 2025 and 2024 World’s Best Employers and 2024 Top Companies for Women lists, Fast Company’s 2025 Next Big Things In Tech, and was a 2024 App Store Award winner in Cultural Impact.

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