Role description
Academia.eduAbout Us
Academia.edu is a venture-backed, for-profit, and profitable company based in San Francisco. We are recognized as the world’s leading platform for researchers and scholars to share work, discover research, and connect with academics globally. Our bold vision is to democratize and accelerate the world's research, enhancing the speed of scientific discovery and technological progress for the benefit of everyone. We imagine a world where accessing academic papers is effortless, keeping track of cutting-edge research is seamless and collaborating with researchers is easier than ever before. Our platform empowers millions of scholars worldwide to push the boundaries of human understanding. We believe in the power of knowledge to change lives and the world, and our commitment to this mission drives everything we do.
Join us as we continue to redefine what's possible in the world of research. Discover careers that challenge, inspire and propel you toward a future where your ideas can truly change the world. At Academia.edu, we're not just shaping the future of research—we're shaping the future of possibilities.
Please note that this role is in the San Francisco Bay area and requires 5 days per week in office.
How You'll Contribute
We're building the platform where the world's research lives -- 64 million full-text papers, used by 30% of the world's faculty. Search has always been the front door. That's changing. In the near future, most people won't type a query into Google, they'll ask an AI agent, which will retrieve and cite sources on their behalf. We want Academia's papers to be the ones it finds.
We're looking for a General Manager of SEO / GEO to own this function end-to-end. You'll have full ownership of strategy, execution, and results across both traditional search and AI-driven discovery. You'll report directly to the CEO and work with a small team of engineers. The job is to make 64 million papers findable by humans today, and by AI agents tomorrow.
As GM of SEO / GEO, you'll operate like a founder with a specific problem to solve: figure out where the leverage is, run the experiments, build the systems, and own the numbers. No one will hand you a playbook. You'll write it.
Own SEO and GEO end-to-end: You will own organic search traffic and AI-citation traffic, from keyword architecture and crawl health through to citation optimization for large language models. Every layer of this function falls within your purview.
Deliver consistent, measurable results: Each initiative you lead will be defined by a clear baseline, a stated goal, and a documented outcome. Reporting is precise and quantitative.
Drive rigorous experimentation: You will design and execute tests that resolve meaningful questions with speed and discipline, deploying AI tooling and technical ingenuity to identify competitive advantages.
Lead and develop a focused team: You will direct a team of 3-4 engineers and design support, setting strategic direction, removing obstacles, authoring PRDs, and elevating team performance through clarity, urgency, and high standards.
About You
You bring 5+ years of hands-on SEO experience, ideally gained within highly competitive industries
You possess a deep, technical understanding of SEO architecture, how data moves through crawling, indexing, and ranking systems, and you have a demonstrated ability to identify where leverage lies within that architecture.
You have a working command of GEO architecture: how a large language model translates a user prompt into search queries, evaluates and selects SERP results, determines which sources to cite, and how this behavior differs across model families.
You are a driver, not a passenger. You advance projects with urgency and ownership -- directing the team, authoring specifications, structuring experiments, and holding the bar without waiting to be asked.
You are a relentless learner. You have proactively integrated AI tools into your practice because the alternative was not acceptable to you. You hold well-reasoned, empirically grounded views on what works.
You communicate with precision: quantitative and qualitative reasoning together, always. You distinguish between a meaningful metric and a vanity statistic.
You operate as a player-coach. You are as comfortable conducting a technical SEO audit as you are leading a strategic planning session, and you do not draw a rigid line between analysis and leadership.
BenefitsComprehensive Healthcare Coverage: 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents
Generous Time Off: 21 paid vacation days, 12 paid company holidays, and unlimited sick days; paid parental leave and other leaves for life’s needs; 6-week paid sabbatical every 4 years
Flexible Work Arrangements: Flexible daily schedules within an onsite work environment, annual remote-office budget, and monthly WFH internet stipend
Competitive Compensation: Competitive salary, 401k plan, and stock options
Mission-Driven Company: Join a mission-driven company to accelerate and democratize the world’s research
Academia is a proud equal-opportunity employer and we are committed to hiring and supporting a diverse workforce. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Academia is a proud equal-opportunity employer and we are committed to hiring and supporting a diverse workforce. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.