Senior SEO Manager

Nando’s has exciting growth ambitions, and we’re looking for an SEO superstar to help us achieve our goals. You’ll be a pivotal figure in the customer marketing team, playing a key role in helping us deliver against our ambitions to be the best restaurant brand in the UK, driving transaction growth and brand love. 

This exciting role will devise and deliver an in-house organic search strategy that increases our presence and revenue through deploying the best technical and content approaches.  

Overall Ambition & Key Responsibilities: 

You’ll lead the in-house Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Generative Search Engine Optimisation (GEO) operation to drive growth, working with the wider business to ensure we have a seamless approach to search and performance.  

Strategic Planning & Execution:  

• Set Nando’s approach to AI-driven search, ensuring the brand is discoverable across emerging conversational and generative search platforms. Lead a cross-functional team to develop strategies to maximise visibility in AI-generated answer engines. 

• Own, design and execute a holistic SEO & GEO strategy across technical, content and local channels, aligned to wider business objectives. 

• Ensure strong visibility across organic, local and AI-driven search for both branded and non-branded queries to drive new customers acquisition, increasing both eat-in and off-premise revenue across UK & IE. 

• Develop and deliver execute a bespoke local SEO strategy to target customers online-to-offline marketing presence to drive footfall to the EAT-in experience. 

Content Optimisation: 

• Partner with brand and cross-functional teams to deliver a best-in-class content strategy that strengthens organic, local and AI-driven search presence. 

• Lead on-page optimisation across key templates, including metadata, headers, site structure and internal linking, to improve visibility and performance. 

Technical SEO Optimisation:  

• Own and deliver the SEO technical roadmap, prioritising and coordinating fixes to endure the site is fully crawlable, indexable and optimised for search engines. 

• Work closely with UX and Web Experience teams to enhance site performance, user experience and overall technical health across UK & IE platforms. 

• Maintain and continuously improve website performance, visibility and technical standards. 
   

Performance Optimisation and Reporting:  

• Define, track and report on SEO performance, using insights to inform strategy and optimise results. 

• Develop new measurement frameworks to track visibility and traffic impact across AI-driven search. 

• Identify the right measurement tools and manage relationships with agency partners. 

• Translate complex data into clear, actionable recommendations for stakeholders. 

• Communicate performance across the business, collaborating with wider marketing teams to assess overall digital impact. 

• Set the test-and-learn roadmap for all SEO and GEO activity, evaluating performance and refining strategy to drive traffic, revenue and visibility. 

• Identify and evaluate emerging AI search technologies and trends, running experiments to understand their impact on consumer discovery and adapting strategy accordingly, ensuring the brand remains at the forefront of search innovation 

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement:

• Line Manage the SEO Executive, and support their performance and development.

• Lead point of contact for SEO, partnering with ecommerce, brand, property, tech and wider functions to align initiatives with business objectives.

• Collaborate with the Paid Search and agency partners to deliver a cohesive, full-funnel search strategy.

• Influence and design processes for Property, Tech and wider functions on our presence across search and naming conventions for restaurant new openings.

• Select and manage SEO agency partners and tools.

• Partner with Brand and copy teams to create and optimise web content that drives visibility, engagement and brand consideration. 
  

Key Stakeholders:

• Head of Growth Marketing

• Digital Performance Lead

• SEO Executive

• Creative Manager & Copy Lead

• Wider Customer Team

• Property Team

• Technology Team (customer web experience, product)

• Agency partners

The candidate should possess / be:

• 5 years' + experience in SEO roles at Management level working across technical, content and PR

• An excellent communicator, able to make the complex simple

• A strong collaborator, able to lead cross-functional teams with multiple stakeholders to drive results

• Innovative and curious, with experience of creating proven strategies to win within AI-generated search, and up-to-date with the latest developments within the space

• Results-driven, with a focus on continuous optimisation

• Experience of leading SEO teams (agency or in-house) and developing people

• Strong proficiency in SEO tools, CMS platforms and evolving AI-driven search ecosystems 

• Strategic thinker within a strong focus on execution, performance and delivery 

• Self-driven with a track record of building and scaling effective search strategies 

• Commercially minded, with experience managing budgets and driving ROI 

Our candidate should be looking for: 

• A culture with strong purpose & values, intent on contributing to / driving positive cultural and societal change  

• An opportunity to be a senior figure within the customer team and take ownership of your own strategy to meet the business needs 

• Freedom to lead the SEO team and create your own masterpiece

• An environment which is relaxed and informal, whilst highly driven and ambitious 

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