SEO Manager (Remote)

Type: Full-Time UK hours

Location: Remote

Compensation: R40,000 - R55,000 per month

About Pontifex

Pontifex Digital helps B2B, SaaS, healthcare, legal, and ecommerce brands get found, not just on Google, but everywhere buyers now search, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Reddit. We run three disciplines as one system: Search Engine Optimisation, Answer Engine Optimisation, and Reddit marketing. Our clients don't just rank; they get cited as the answer.

We're now looking for an SEO Manager to own the client-facing side of our organic search function. This is not a hands-on execution role; it's a strategic and quality-control role sitting above our SEO team. You'll be the authoritative voice clients hear from on calls and in writing, the person who catches gaps before clients ever see them, and the one who holds our SEO team members accountable for output and turnaround.

You'll think beyond rankings, full user journey, AEO, Reddit visibility, LLM sentiment, and translate that into strategy our clients trust.

What you'll be doing

Client Relationship & Communication

• Serve as the primary client-facing authority on all SEO matters, hop on calls, explain progress with specifics and real examples, and own the organic side of the relationship end-to-end.
• Hold every report and deliverable to a proof standard: work shown against the client's actual contracted deliverables (promised vs delivered), with real URLs, screenshots, and target dates - not summaries or vanity traffic metrics. Reporting always leads with the objective the client actually bought.
• Deliver written and verbal communication with the nuance, specificity, and authority clients expect not generic reporting.
• Proactively surface strategic opportunities to clients beyond standard rankings/traffic reporting.

Quality Control & Accountability

• Validate and quality-check reports and deliverables coming from SEO team members before they reach the client.
• Catch gaps, inconsistencies, or missed items before they become client-facing problems.
• Chase and hold team members accountable for turnaround and quality, ensuring proactive follow-up so nothing slips through.

Strategic Oversight

• Own the full contractual scope of each account and ensure every deliverable the client is paying for is tracked, enforced, and evidenced, so nothing depends on someone remembering it.
• Think beyond traditional SEO: incorporate full user journey mapping, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), Reddit/community visibility, and LLM sentiment into strategy.
• Set the strategic direction for each account, working with our SEO specialists and delivery team to translate strategy into executable tasks.
• Identify and flag risk areas or missed opportunities across the client portfolio.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Sit above our SEO specialists and delivery team, not performing technical SEO execution directly, but owning output quality and client experience.
• Partner with our SEO specialists and delivery team to ensure client strategy translates cleanly into operational tasks.
• Free up internal leadership to focus elsewhere.

What we're looking for

Experience

• 5+ years in SEO with strong client-facing experience, comfortable leading calls and owning relationships, not just reporting metrics.
• Experience managing or quality-checking output from team members, across a portfolio of accounts.
• Strong grasp of technical, on-page, and off-page SEO, enough to critically evaluate work, even without doing the execution yourself.

Skills & Traits

• Reads a client's specific situation and reasons about it, rather than producing templated or AI-generated filler. This is the single trait we screen hardest for.
• Proven ability to communicate complex SEO concepts with specificity and examples that build client trust.
• Familiarity with emerging areas: AEO, LLM/AI search visibility, brand sentiment across platforms like Reddit.
• Highly organized and proactive, comfortable chasing team members and closing gaps without being asked.
• Takes ownership, no excuses, no handholding, no passing the buck.

What this role is not

• Not a hands-on technical execution role.
• Not a traditional people-management role with direct reports, this is an oversight and client-ownership role.

Success in this role

6 Months

• You're the trusted point of contact across all assigned client accounts, clients see you as the face of their SEO strategy.
• You've built a reliable QC process that consistently catches gaps before they reach the client.
• SEO team members respond faster and more accurately because you're actively holding them to account.

12 Months

• Your strategic input, AEO, Reddit, LLM sentiment, is visibly shaping account direction, not just rankings reports.
• Clients renew and expand based on the confidence they have in you specifically.
• Own SEO oversight end-to-end.

18 Months

• You're shaping how Pontifex structures SEO delivery and team management as the client base grows.
• You're a key voice in how Pontifex evolves its SEO/AEO/Reddit strategy across all three disciplines.
• You're playing a central role in scaling Pontifex's service delivery model.

Why join Pontifex?

Work at the edge of search

You won't be running 2019 SEO playbooks. You'll own strategy across SEO, AEO, and Reddit, the disciplines shaping how brands get found in the AI search era.

Real ownership

You're not a report-checker. You're the strategic and relationship owner, directing SEO team output and shaping how clients experience Pontifex.

Proven results

You'll be representing an agency with a track record clients feel, average +250% organic traffic, 90-day average time to first AI citation, and a growing base of case studies across ecommerce, SaaS, legal, and healthcare.

Remote-first

Work from anywhere while staying connected to a fast-moving, accountability-driven team.

Bonus (Not Essential)

• Willingness to join technical sales calls alongside leadership, helping explain our approach to prospective clients. Commission available on closed deals you contribute to.
• Ability to create thought leadership content (LinkedIn posts, short articles) around AI search, AEO, and how modern SEO is evolving, helping Pontifex build visibility with future clients.
• Comfort recording short video walkthroughs (Loom, screen recordings) showcasing our work, results, and methodology for use in sales and marketing.

Pay: R40 000,00 - R50 000,00 per month

Application Question(s):

• Do you have 5+ years in SEO with strong client-facing experience?
• Are you comfortable leading calls and owning relationships, not just reporting metrics?
• Do you have a strong grasp of technical, on-page, and off-page SEO, enough to critically evaluate work, even without doing the execution yourself?
• Available to work in UK business hours?
• Do you have your own laptop and equipment?
• Do you have a high internet speed connection?
• So you have a noise cancelling headset?
• Do you have experience managing or quality-checking output from team members, across a portfolio of accounts.

Work Location: Remote