Director, AI Visibility and GEO Strategy

Company description Welcome to Our World We’ve been leading the charge in the affiliate industry from day one—establishing performance marketing and paving the way for future innovations. We're known for maintaining one of the largest, most reliable partnership platforms with impeccable, personalized service. Founded in Santa Barbara, California in 1998, CJ (formerly Commission Junction) stands as the most trusted name in performance marketing. We specialize in building partnerships between top brands and reputable publishers to drive revenue and business growth. CJ’s industry-leading solutions make us the platform of choice for over 3,800 global brands across sectors like retail, travel, finance, technology, and home services. As part of Publicis Groupe, our savvy data capabilities, cutting-edge tech, and strategic expertise facilitate genuine connections, allowing brands to reach consumers wherever they are. A Quick Peek at Affiliate Marketing Think back to your last online purchase. Did an influencer tip you off about a great product and offer a discount? Or perhaps you relied on a trusted review site to make your decision? Whatever path you took, affiliate publishers likely played a role by influencing, informing, or helping you find the best deal. CJ connects brands with these publishers, creating valuable resources for shoppers like you. At CJ, we’re not just participating in the creator economy, we’re helping define its future. CJ Influence is our end-to-end influencer and creator commerce solution, built to turn cultural relevance into measurable business impact. We operate at the intersection of content, commerce, and data, designing creator strategies that don’t just generate buzz, but drive full-funnel performance and deliver real revenue outcomes. From TikTok Shop and Amazon to DTC and in-store retail experiences, our team builds and activates high-performing creator programs across the entire commerce ecosystem. We partner with some of the world’s most recognized Fortune 1000 brands, helping them unlock growth through authentic creator relationships that convert. What sets us apart, and what you’d be a part of, is our proprietary, market-leading technology. It empowers us to identify the right creators, activate them at scale, and continuously optimize performance based on real-time data. This isn’t guesswork or vanity metrics, it’s a performance engine built for modern marketing. Joining CJ Influence means working at the forefront of a fast-evolving space, where creativity meets analytics, and where your work directly shapes how brands grow in the creator economy. If you’re excited by innovation, measurable impact, and building what’s next, you’ll fit right in. Overview We are seeking a Director, AI Visibility & Affiliate GEO Strategy to lead client strategy for this emerging category. This individual will serve as the strategic lead across AI Visibility and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) engagements, helping enterprise advertisers understand where they are showing up in AI-generated experiences, why they are being cited, and how they can strengthen their presence through content, publisher, and visibility strategies. This role sits at the intersection of SEO, affiliate, content, publisher ecosystems, and AI-driven discovery. The ideal GEO Director combines deep SEO expertise with strong leadership and commercial skills. We're looking for someone who has experience working within a holding company environment, can coach and develop teams, and is effective at driving work across functions where they may not directly own every resource. They also need to be highly credible with clients and comfortable partnering with sales, shaping opportunities, and pitching new capabilities. Ultimately, this person should be able to connect the technical side of search and GEO with the broader client and business opportunity. Responsibilities Client Strategy & Leadership Serve as the strategic lead for AI Visibility and GEO engagements across a portfolio of enterprise clients. Consult with advertisers on how AI platforms are influencing customer discovery, evaluation, and purchasing behavior. Develop client-specific AI Visibility strategies aligned to business objectives, category dynamics, competitive landscape, and visibility opportunities. Present strategic recommendations, executive insights, and thought leadership to senior client stakeholders. Act as a trusted advisor on emerging trends in AI-driven commerce, search, content, and digital discovery. Serve as a strategic advisor on the evolving convergence of SEO, GEO, content strategy, and AI-driven discovery. Guide clients through organizational changes required to adapt to AI-powered search and recommendation environments, helping align digital, content, SEO, PR, affiliate, and commerce stakeholders around shared visibility objectives. GEO & Visibility Optimization Translate visibility data into actionable recommendations designed to improve brand representation across AI-generated responses. Identify opportunities to strengthen presence across publisher, content, comparison, review, and recommendation ecosystems. Develop strategic roadmaps designed to improve citation share, competitive visibility, and category presence. Advise clients on strategic investment priorities based on visibility gaps, citation analysis, competitive insights, and business objectives. Partner with activation, media, and investment teams to translate strategic recommendations into executable publisher and content investment plans. Provide strategic GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) guidance, helping clients understand how content, authority signals, publisher presence, and brand representation influence visibility within AI-generated responses. Educate clients on the relationship between SEO, content strategy, publisher ecosystems, and AI visibility, translating complex technical concepts into actionable business recommendations. Identify opportunities to improve discoverability through content structure, topical authority, earned visibility, and third-party publisher presence. Advise on GEO best practices spanning on-site content, off-site content, publisher partnerships, comparison content, reviews, and category-specific recommendation ecosystems. Stay current on evolving AI search, answer engines, retrieval systems, and content indexing trends to proactively guide client strategy. Publisher & Ecosystem Strategy Maintain deep knowledge of publisher business models, content ecosystems, and emerging visibility opportunities. Identify and prioritize publisher, content, and ecosystem opportunities based on citation frequency, category influence, audience relevance, and client objectives. Develop strategic recommendations that inform publisher investment and content planning decisions. Partner closely with media, publisher development, and investment teams to ensure strategic recommendations can be translated into scalable activation plans. Collaborate with publisher development teams to identify innovative visibility opportunities, emerging partnerships, and marketplace trends. Evaluate the strategic value of various visibility approaches, including sponsored content, editorial partnerships, performance affiliate opportunities, commerce content, CPC models, and other publisher engagement solutions. Develop frameworks and decision-making models that help clients prioritize visibility investments across publisher ecosystems. Measurement & Insights Leverage AI Visibility measurement platforms and commerce intelligence tools to identify trends, opportunities, and risks. Develop strategic narratives from visibility, citation, competitive intelligence, and category data. Monitor client performance against visibility objectives and identify optimization opportunities. Partner with analytics and product teams to evolve measurement frameworks and reporting methodologies. Analyze SEO, content, and visibility signals alongside AI visibility insights to identify opportunities for increased discoverability and competitive differentiation. Connect traditional search performance indicators, publisher authority, and content coverage trends with AI visibility outcomes to inform strategic recommendations. Cross-Functional Leadership Collaborate with Product, Analytics, Publisher Development, Media, Sales, and Client Services teams to shape the evolution of AI Visibility offerings. Contribute to thought leadership, client education materials, training programs, and industry-facing content. Support commercialization efforts by helping define client value propositions, service models, strategic frameworks, and best practices. Mentor and develop junior strategists and consultants. Help establish repeatable processes and methodologies that scale GEO strategy delivery across clients and industries. Qualifications Required 8-12+ years of experience in SEO, affiliate marketing, digital strategy, performance marketing, publisher development, commerce media, content strategy, or related fields. Proven experience leading strategic client relationships and presenting to senior and executive-level stakeholders. Strong understanding of publisher ecosystems, content monetization models, affiliate partnerships, and digital media landscapes. Strong understanding of SEO fundamentals, including content strategy, technical SEO concepts, authority signals, indexing, crawling, structured data, and search ecosystem dynamics. Experience translating search, content, visibility, and performance data into strategic business recommendations. Ability to communicate emerging GEO concepts and best practices to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Experience in SEO, affiliate, content partnerships, publisher strategy, or commerce content, with experience spanning multiple disciplines strongly preferred. Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to synthesize complex information into actionable recommendations. Ability to navigate ambiguity and build strategies in rapidly evolving markets. Strong communication, storytelling, and stakeholder management skills. Preferred Experience with AI Visibility, GEO, SEO, content strategy, commerce content, or digital discovery ecosystems. Knowledge of large language models, AI-powered search experiences, answer engines, and evolving consumer discovery behavior. Direct experience developing SEO, content, organic search, or digital visibility strategies for enterprise brands. Familiarity with GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), retrieval systems, AI search platforms, and the evolving relationship between search engines and large language models. Experience partnering with SEO teams, content strategists, digital PR teams, publisher organizations, or media teams to improve visibility outcomes. Experience working with enterprise advertisers and complex cross-functional organizations. Familiarity with market intelligence, analytics, and visibility measurement platforms. Experience developing new products, capabilities, service offerings, or consulting frameworks. What Success Looks Like: Within the first 12 months, you will: Be recognized as a trusted strategic advisor for AI Visibility across a portfolio of key clients. Lead the development of GEO strategies that translate visibility insights into actionable content, publisher, and investment recommendations. Establish repeatable strategic frameworks that support client adoption and growth of AI Visibility services. Influence the evolution of our AI Visibility offering through client feedback, marketplace insights, and strategic innovation. Drive measurable growth in client adoption and investment in AI Visibility and GEO solutions. Become a recognized subject matter expert in GEO and AI Visibility, helping clients navigate the intersection of affiliate, content, SEO, and AI-driven discovery. Develop practical frameworks that enable clients to translate AI visibility insights into content, publisher, and search optimization strategies. Help establish our organization as a trusted strategic partner for brands seeking guidance on AI-driven visibility and digital discovery. Additional information This is a hybrid role requiring 3 days a week in office. CJ is the leader in Performance Marketing.  We take pride in our innovative technology, comprehensive data solutions and our people.  We equip our teams with advanced tools, training and career development opportunities all to provide modern solutions, strategies and support to deliver high quality results for our clients. We work in an enthusiastic, collaborative team setting that values outstanding performance. We're a community of creative and passionate problem solvers who go the distance to tackle the tough questions, think creatively, and drive resourceful growth, for our clients—and ourselves. We foster and embody an inclusive and collaborative culture where diverse perspectives are sought, relationships are valued, and people feel accepted with a sense of belonging in expressing themselves authentically. We pride ourselves in having a workplace environment that values both work and play. Why Our Workplace Stands Out Apart from offering competitive salaries, 401K matching, wellness programs, and comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, we provide: • Flexible time off without the hassle of accrual • A generous number of paid holidays • Company-sponsored team-building events • An Employee Referral Program • Annual recognition awards • Hybrid work arrangements for optimal work-life balance • Parental bonding leave • Backup care options for children and elders • An employee discount program • International SOS program for global support • Business Resource Groups, where employees connect over shared interests to cultivate an engaging, inclusive environment …and those are just a few of our great perks! Come join us and see what makes our company a great place to work. If you require accommodation or assistance with the application or onboarding process specifically, please contact . All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines. #LI-DT1 Compensation Range: USD $129,485.00 - USD $186,060.00/Annually. This is the pay range the Company believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and the Company reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. Temporary roles may be eligible to participate in our freelancer/temporary employee medical plan through a third-party benefits administration system once certain criteria have been met. For regular roles, the Company will offer medical coverage, dental, vision, disability, 401k, and paid time off. The Company anticipates the application deadline for this job posting will be 1/1/2027.
Client Strategy & Leadership Serve as the strategic lead for AI Visibility and GEO engagements across a portfolio of enterprise clients. Consult with advertisers on how AI platforms are influencing customer discovery, evaluation, and purchasing behavior. Develop client-specific AI Visibility strategies aligned to business objectives, category dynamics, competitive landscape, and visibility opportunities. Present strategic recommendations, executive insights, and thought leadership to senior client stakeholders. Act as a trusted advisor on emerging trends in AI-driven commerce, search, content, and digital discovery. Serve as a strategic advisor on the evolving convergence of SEO, GEO, content strategy, and AI-driven discovery. Guide clients through organizational changes required to adapt to AI-powered search and recommendation environments, helping align digital, content, SEO, PR, affiliate, and commerce stakeholders around shared visibility objectives. GEO & Visibility Optimization Translate visibility data into actionable recommendations designed to improve brand representation across AI-generated responses. Identify opportunities to strengthen presence across publisher, content, comparison, review, and recommendation ecosystems. Develop strategic roadmaps designed to improve citation share, competitive visibility, and category presence. Advise clients on strategic investment priorities based on visibility gaps, citation analysis, competitive insights, and business objectives. Partner with activation, media, and investment teams to translate strategic recommendations into executable publisher and content investment plans. Provide strategic GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) guidance, helping clients understand how content, authority signals, publisher presence, and brand representation influence visibility within AI-generated responses. Educate clients on the relationship between SEO, content strategy, publisher ecosystems, and AI visibility, translating complex technical concepts into actionable business recommendations. Identify opportunities to improve discoverability through content structure, topical authority, earned visibility, and third-party publisher presence. Advise on GEO best practices spanning on-site content, off-site content, publisher partnerships, comparison content, reviews, and category-specific recommendation ecosystems. Stay current on evolving AI search, answer engines, retrieval systems, and content indexing trends to proactively guide client strategy. Publisher & Ecosystem Strategy Maintain deep knowledge of publisher business models, content ecosystems, and emerging visibility opportunities. Identify and prioritize publisher, content, and ecosystem opportunities based on citation frequency, category influence, audience relevance, and client objectives. Develop strategic recommendations that inform publisher investment and content planning decisions. Partner closely with media, publisher development, and investment teams to ensure strategic recommendations can be translated into scalable activation plans. Collaborate with publisher development teams to identify innovative visibility opportunities, emerging partnerships, and marketplace trends. Evaluate the strategic value of various visibility approaches, including sponsored content, editorial partnerships, performance affiliate opportunities, commerce content, CPC models, and other publisher engagement solutions. Develop frameworks and decision-making models that help clients prioritize visibility investments across publisher ecosystems. Measurement & Insights Leverage AI Visibility measurement platforms and commerce intelligence tools to identify trends, opportunities, and risks. Develop strategic narratives from visibility, citation, competitive intelligence, and category data. Monitor client performance against visibility objectives and identify optimization opportunities. Partner with analytics and product teams to evolve measurement frameworks and reporting methodologies. Analyze SEO, content, and visibility signals alongside AI visibility insights to identify opportunities for increased discoverability and competitive differentiation. Connect traditional search performance indicators, publisher authority, and content coverage trends with AI visibility outcomes to inform strategic recommendations. Cross-Functional Leadership Collaborate with Product, Analytics, Publisher Development, Media, Sales, and Client Services teams to shape the evolution of AI Visibility offerings. Contribute to thought leadership, client education materials, training programs, and industry-facing content. Support commercialization efforts by helping define client value propositions, service models, strategic frameworks, and best practices. Mentor and develop junior strategists and consultants. Help establish repeatable processes and methodologies that scale GEO strategy delivery across clients and industries.
Required 8-12+ years of experience in SEO, affiliate marketing, digital strategy, performance marketing, publisher development, commerce media, content strategy, or related fields. Proven experience leading strategic client relationships and presenting to senior and executive-level stakeholders. Strong understanding of publisher ecosystems, content monetization models, affiliate partnerships, and digital media landscapes. Strong understanding of SEO fundamentals, including content strategy, technical SEO concepts, authority signals, indexing, crawling, structured data, and search ecosystem dynamics. Experience translating search, content, visibility, and performance data into strategic business recommendations. Ability to communicate emerging GEO concepts and best practices to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Experience in SEO, affiliate, content partnerships, publisher strategy, or commerce content, with experience spanning multiple disciplines strongly preferred. Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to synthesize complex information into actionable recommendations. Ability to navigate ambiguity and build strategies in rapidly evolving markets. Strong communication, storytelling, and stakeholder management skills. Preferred Experience with AI Visibility, GEO, SEO, content strategy, commerce content, or digital discovery ecosystems. Knowledge of large language models, AI-powered search experiences, answer engines, and evolving consumer discovery behavior. Direct experience developing SEO, content, organic search, or digital visibility strategies for enterprise brands. Familiarity with GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), retrieval systems, AI search platforms, and the evolving relationship between search engines and large language models. Experience partnering with SEO teams, content strategists, digital PR teams, publisher organizations, or media teams to improve visibility outcomes. Experience working with enterprise advertisers and complex cross-functional organizations. Familiarity with market intelligence, analytics, and visibility measurement platforms. Experience developing new products, capabilities, service offerings, or consulting frameworks. What Success Looks Like: Within the first 12 months, you will: Be recognized as a trusted strategic advisor for AI Visibility across a portfolio of key clients. Lead the development of GEO strategies that translate visibility insights into actionable content, publisher, and investment recommendations. Establish repeatable strategic frameworks that support client adoption and growth of AI Visibility services. Influence the evolution of our AI Visibility offering through client feedback, marketplace insights, and strategic innovation. Drive measurable growth in client adoption and investment in AI Visibility and GEO solutions. Become a recognized subject matter expert in GEO and AI Visibility, helping clients navigate the intersection of affiliate, content, SEO, and AI-driven discovery. Develop practical frameworks that enable clients to translate AI visibility insights into content, publisher, and search optimization strategies. Help establish our organization as a trusted strategic partner for brands seeking guidance on AI-driven visibility and digital discovery.