Director of Search Marketing- US

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Opportunity:

The Search team at HomeAway.com, Inc. is responsible for setting and executing on the strategy to increase traveler and owner traffic and conversion from search engines and other related traffic sources. We have aggressive goals and a highly effective team focused on moving fast and delivering exceptional results. The team has strong company wide support and high levels of engagement with the top executives, providing a very satisfying work environment where results are clear and directly related to the job we do.

We are looking for an outstanding individual who combines superb strategy, communication, organization and analytical capabilities with a demonstrated ability to get the right things done quickly and effectively. This person must be comfortable with technology and capable of gaining the respect of development while also being able to communicate effectively as an evangelist with general managers and functional leaders of the company.

 

Responsibilities:

The Director of Search Marketing is responsible for defining the strategy, then building the tactical plan to meet HomeAway’s business objectives, including top rankings for highly competitive keywords, highly qualified traffic from organic/natural and paid search across HomeAway’s websites and publishing platforms in the United States. He/She will leverage his/her expertise and creativity to not only drive SEM projects forward but also ensure maximum return on resource and financial investment. He/She manage a cross-functional team and also partners with teams globally. Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Creating and executing against a plan to meet aggressive traffic and revenue goals across multiple online marketing channels by:

-Defining search strategies that delight the audiences coming to our web site and improve user experience rather than sacrifice it

-Analyzing of vast quantities of internal and external data to identify meaningful insights, justify business cases prioritize initiatives

-Creating and present strategic search marketing initiatives to business leaders o Managing cross-functional teams to drive results

-Maximizing traffic, reservation requests, additional vacation rental listings, and thus revenue by employing cutting edge search strategies

-Increasing presence and prominence in the major search engines both for branded words, portfolios, and long-tail terms

-Participating in the development and phasing of solutions to challenges faced by development team (assisting with optimization, tradeoffs, and prioritization)

-Maximizing the traffic and new listing performance and return on investment of paid search investment of $5mm plus.

• Leading and inspiring a bright, highly motivated team of ten full time equivalents focused on strategy, analysis, content development and link building to perform beyond expectations.

• Leading the development of a SEO Partnership strategy with major search/social network players.

 

Candidate Profile:

This Director of Search Marketing must be creative, collaborative and consultative, and able to work well across a global organization to build a scalable experience. Background should include:

• Ten plus years of experience within the internet industry including five plus years of online experience in ecommerce/volume content business with demonstrable achievement of top rankings in searches and increased traffic in/from search engines

• Three plus years of leadership experience in global organizations consisting of large dynamic sites with volume content and active users, including architecting and implementing SEO best practices, standards and policies

• Operational/functional understanding of ecommerce technologies and hands on experience with ecommerce marketing, top-tier web ecommerce engines (ATG, IBM, GSI, MarketLive) analytics applications (i.e. Coremetrics, Fireclick, Omniture), in store search (Omniture, Endeca) and social networking tools

• Demonstrated capability to create and present effective business plans and product roadmaps reflecting great strategic insight to all levels of company management

• Track record of increased customer acquisition; high level of initiative and desire to create a world-class experience for our customers

• Demonstrated experience solving difficult problems and delivering beyond expectations in an aggressively results focused environment

• Operational/functional understanding of and passion for metrics and quantitative analysis, computational linguistics, and semantic web

• Knowledge of social networking, pay-per-click (PPC) and online affiliates/partnerships programs as they relate to search

• Experience as a significant contributor to partnership strategies with major search and social media companies

• Excellent written and oral presentation skills demonstrated by vision and thought-leadership

• Excellent listening skills, concise communication, and targeting the message to specific audiences including multi-cultural organizational dynamics

• Degree in relevant field; advanced degree in computer science, information science or linguistics preferred.

 

Location: 

Austin, TX.  Limited travel.