Seo Manager Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
SEO Manager roles attract strong H-1B visa and O-1 visa sponsorship because the position qualifies as a specialty occupation requiring a bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, or a related field. Employers across tech, e-commerce, and media regularly sponsor qualified candidates. For detailed occupation requirements, see the O*NET profile.
Find Seo Manager JobsOverview
Showing 5 of 133+ Seo Manager jobs
See all 133+ Seo Manager Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Seo Manager roles.
Get Access To All JobsDigital Performance
Location: Chicago - N. State
About the job
As a Manager, SEO & AI Discovery at Merkle, you will lead SEO strategy across a portfolio of client accounts, setting program direction, owning complex audits and recommendations, and translating search performance into business outcomes. This role is built for a senior individual contributor who can move comfortably between technical SEO, content and on-page strategy, AI-driven discovery, performance measurement, and client advisory. You will serve as a trusted lead for assigned accounts, helping clients understand what is happening, why it matters, and what to do next.
Core Responsibilities
- Lead SEO strategy across assigned accounts: Set search program direction, prioritize workstreams, and ensure recommendations connect to client business goals, marketing priorities, and measurable outcomes.
- Serve as the day-to-day search lead: Build trusted relationships with client stakeholders, understand their goals, KPIs, business context, priorities, and decision-making dynamics, and translate search priorities into clear, business-relevant action.
- Own complex SEO / AI audits and analyses: Independently diagnose performance opportunities across technical SEO, content and on-page optimization, AI Search visibility, competitive landscape, and site architecture.
- Develop measurement frameworks: Define SEO reporting structures that connect organic visibility, technical health, content performance, classic SERP visibility, AI Overview presence, LLM visibility, and business outcomes.
- Turn data into decisions: Analyze data from GSC, GA4, crawl tools, rank tracking, log files, AI visibility platforms, and third-party tools to identify patterns, explain performance shifts, and prioritize action.
- Create actionable recommendations: Translate findings into prioritized recommendations with clear impact, effort, dependencies, confidence level, and implementation guidance for client, content, and engineering teams.
- Lead technical SEO workstreams: Guide recommendations across crawl, indexation, rendering, JavaScript SEO, Core Web Vitals, site architecture, internal linking, schema, structured data, migrations, and re-platforming.
- Advance content and AI Search visibility: Lead search intent mapping, topical authority planning, SERP feature analysis, AI Overview evaluation, LLM visibility analysis, entity and brand authority recommendations, and scalable on-page optimization frameworks.
- Own delivery quality: Manage assigned SEO workstreams end-to-end, including scoping, work planning, QA, stakeholder updates, timeline management, and on-time delivery.
- Mentor and review junior work: Coach consultants and staff consultants on analysis planning, data interpretation, recommendation quality, deliverable structure, and client-ready communication.
- Support account growth: Identify organic growth opportunities, contribute SEO expertise to pitches, RFPs, renewals, and SOW scoping, and help shape work that is clearly scoped, valuable to clients, and feasible for the team to deliver.
- Improve the SEO practice: Contribute to internal templates, playbooks, QA standards, training materials, AI-assisted workflows, and process improvements that help the team deliver better work at scale.
What You’ll Bring
- 3+ years of progressive SEO experience, preferably in an agency, consultancy, or complex multi-stakeholder environment.
- Strong technical SEO capability across crawl, indexation, rendering, site architecture, internal linking, Core Web Vitals, structured data, migrations, and JavaScript SEO.
- Demonstrated capability in SEO analysis and measurement, including the ability to combine multiple data sources and translate findings into business-relevant recommendations.
- Hands-on experience with tools such as Google Search Console, GA4, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Ahrefs, SEMRush, enterprise crawlers, rank tracking platforms, Data Studio, and AI visibility tracking platforms.
- Ability to build clear, persuasive client deliverables, including audits, executive summaries, dashboards, roadmaps, and strategic recommendation decks.
- Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to adjust communication for executives, marketers, engineers, content teams, and internal stakeholders.
- Experience leading client conversations, answering questions in real time, and explaining and supporting recommendations with evidence, context, and judgment.
- Working knowledge of AI Search, including AI Overviews, LLM-powered discovery, citation visibility, entity authority, and AI-assisted SEO workflows.
- Strong project and workstream ownership, including the ability to manage timelines, flag risks early, coordinate with PMs and cross-functional teams, and keep stakeholders informed.
- Comfort mentoring consultants and staff consultants and reviewing their work for analytical accuracy, strategic clarity, and client readiness.
Preferred / Bonus Experience
- BigQuery, SQL, Python, server log analysis, API-based reporting, or other scalable data workflows.
- Experience with international SEO, e-commerce SEO, local SEO, video/image SEO, link building, digital PR, or SEO testing.
- Experience developing reusable SEO templates, processes, playbooks, training materials, or productized service offerings.
Leadership & Ways of Working
- You are proactive, responsive, and self-directed. You readily provide status/account updates, risks, or next steps.
- You can manage multiple accounts or workstreams at once without losing quality, context, or follow-through.
- You are comfortable with ambiguity and can turn broad client questions into structured analysis plans and practical recommendations.
- You raise risks early, propose paths forward, and balance client needs with team capacity and scope boundaries.
- You help make the team better by sharing what you know, improving how work gets done, and creating space for consultants and staff consultants to grow.
The annual salary range for this position is 65K-75K. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law.
Benefits available with this position include:
- Medical, vision, and dental insurance
- Life insurance
- Short-term and long-term disability insurance
- 401k
- Flexible paid time off
- At least 15 paid holidays per year
- Paid sick and safe leave
- Paid parental leave
Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, in accordance with its plans and policies. For further details regarding Dentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com.
To begin the application process, please click on the "Apply" button at the top of this job posting. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and qualified candidates will be contacted for next steps.
At dentsu, we believe great work happens when we’re connected. Our way of working combines flexibility with in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currently located in Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, are required and expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu may designate other Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may be designated as remote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office.
LI-EB1 #LI-HYBRID
Digital Performance
Location: Chicago - N. State
About the job
As a Manager, SEO & AI Discovery at Merkle, you will lead SEO strategy across a portfolio of client accounts, setting program direction, owning complex audits and recommendations, and translating search performance into business outcomes. This role is built for a senior individual contributor who can move comfortably between technical SEO, content and on-page strategy, AI-driven discovery, performance measurement, and client advisory. You will serve as a trusted lead for assigned accounts, helping clients understand what is happening, why it matters, and what to do next.
Core Responsibilities
- Lead SEO strategy across assigned accounts: Set search program direction, prioritize workstreams, and ensure recommendations connect to client business goals, marketing priorities, and measurable outcomes.
- Serve as the day-to-day search lead: Build trusted relationships with client stakeholders, understand their goals, KPIs, business context, priorities, and decision-making dynamics, and translate search priorities into clear, business-relevant action.
- Own complex SEO / AI audits and analyses: Independently diagnose performance opportunities across technical SEO, content and on-page optimization, AI Search visibility, competitive landscape, and site architecture.
- Develop measurement frameworks: Define SEO reporting structures that connect organic visibility, technical health, content performance, classic SERP visibility, AI Overview presence, LLM visibility, and business outcomes.
- Turn data into decisions: Analyze data from GSC, GA4, crawl tools, rank tracking, log files, AI visibility platforms, and third-party tools to identify patterns, explain performance shifts, and prioritize action.
- Create actionable recommendations: Translate findings into prioritized recommendations with clear impact, effort, dependencies, confidence level, and implementation guidance for client, content, and engineering teams.
- Lead technical SEO workstreams: Guide recommendations across crawl, indexation, rendering, JavaScript SEO, Core Web Vitals, site architecture, internal linking, schema, structured data, migrations, and re-platforming.
- Advance content and AI Search visibility: Lead search intent mapping, topical authority planning, SERP feature analysis, AI Overview evaluation, LLM visibility analysis, entity and brand authority recommendations, and scalable on-page optimization frameworks.
- Own delivery quality: Manage assigned SEO workstreams end-to-end, including scoping, work planning, QA, stakeholder updates, timeline management, and on-time delivery.
- Mentor and review junior work: Coach consultants and staff consultants on analysis planning, data interpretation, recommendation quality, deliverable structure, and client-ready communication.
- Support account growth: Identify organic growth opportunities, contribute SEO expertise to pitches, RFPs, renewals, and SOW scoping, and help shape work that is clearly scoped, valuable to clients, and feasible for the team to deliver.
- Improve the SEO practice: Contribute to internal templates, playbooks, QA standards, training materials, AI-assisted workflows, and process improvements that help the team deliver better work at scale.
What You’ll Bring
- 3+ years of progressive SEO experience, preferably in an agency, consultancy, or complex multi-stakeholder environment.
- Strong technical SEO capability across crawl, indexation, rendering, site architecture, internal linking, Core Web Vitals, structured data, migrations, and JavaScript SEO.
- Demonstrated capability in SEO analysis and measurement, including the ability to combine multiple data sources and translate findings into business-relevant recommendations.
- Hands-on experience with tools such as Google Search Console, GA4, Screaming Frog, Sitebulb, Ahrefs, SEMRush, enterprise crawlers, rank tracking platforms, Data Studio, and AI visibility tracking platforms.
- Ability to build clear, persuasive client deliverables, including audits, executive summaries, dashboards, roadmaps, and strategic recommendation decks.
- Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to adjust communication for executives, marketers, engineers, content teams, and internal stakeholders.
- Experience leading client conversations, answering questions in real time, and explaining and supporting recommendations with evidence, context, and judgment.
- Working knowledge of AI Search, including AI Overviews, LLM-powered discovery, citation visibility, entity authority, and AI-assisted SEO workflows.
- Strong project and workstream ownership, including the ability to manage timelines, flag risks early, coordinate with PMs and cross-functional teams, and keep stakeholders informed.
- Comfort mentoring consultants and staff consultants and reviewing their work for analytical accuracy, strategic clarity, and client readiness.
Preferred / Bonus Experience
- BigQuery, SQL, Python, server log analysis, API-based reporting, or other scalable data workflows.
- Experience with international SEO, e-commerce SEO, local SEO, video/image SEO, link building, digital PR, or SEO testing.
- Experience developing reusable SEO templates, processes, playbooks, training materials, or productized service offerings.
Leadership & Ways of Working
- You are proactive, responsive, and self-directed. You readily provide status/account updates, risks, or next steps.
- You can manage multiple accounts or workstreams at once without losing quality, context, or follow-through.
- You are comfortable with ambiguity and can turn broad client questions into structured analysis plans and practical recommendations.
- You raise risks early, propose paths forward, and balance client needs with team capacity and scope boundaries.
- You help make the team better by sharing what you know, improving how work gets done, and creating space for consultants and staff consultants to grow.
The annual salary range for this position is 65K-75K. Placement within the salary range is based on a variety of factors, including relevant experience, knowledge, skills, and other factors permitted by law.
Benefits available with this position include:
- Medical, vision, and dental insurance
- Life insurance
- Short-term and long-term disability insurance
- 401k
- Flexible paid time off
- At least 15 paid holidays per year
- Paid sick and safe leave
- Paid parental leave
Dentsu also complies with applicable state and local laws regarding employee leave benefits, including, but not limited to providing time off pursuant to the Colorado Healthy Families and Workplaces Act, in accordance with its plans and policies. For further details regarding Dentsu benefits, please visit www.dentsubenefitsplus.com.
To begin the application process, please click on the "Apply" button at the top of this job posting. Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, and qualified candidates will be contacted for next steps.
At dentsu, we believe great work happens when we’re connected. Our way of working combines flexibility with in-person collaboration to spark ideas and strengthen our teams. Employees who live within a commutable distance of one of our hub offices, currently located in Chicago, metro Detroit, Los Angeles, and New York City, are required and expected to work from the office three days per week (two days per week for employees based in Los Angeles). Dentsu may designate other Hub offices at any time. Those who live outside a commutable range may be designated as remote, depending on the role and business needs. Regardless of your work location, we expect our employees to be flexible to meet the needs of our Company and clients, which may include attendance in an office.
LI-EB1 #LI-HYBRID
See all 133+ Seo Manager Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Seo Manager roles.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Visa Sponsorship as a Seo Manager
Frame your degree as field-specific
USCIS requires your degree to align directly with SEO management duties. A degree in marketing, communications, computer science, or data analytics strengthens your specialty occupation case far more than a general business degree.
Quantify your SEO impact with hard numbers
Employers and visa officers respond to measurable results. Document organic traffic growth percentages, keyword ranking improvements, and revenue attribution from SEO to demonstrate the specialized, high-stakes nature of your work.
Target companies with established sponsorship history
Tech, SaaS, and e-commerce companies sponsor SEO Managers far more consistently than traditional industries. Look for employers who have filed LCAs for similar digital marketing roles in publicly available Department of Labor disclosure data.
Understand the LCA before your first interview
Your employer files a Labor Condition Application with the Department of Labor before petitioning USCIS. Knowing this process helps you ask informed questions and signals to hiring managers that you understand how sponsorship actually works.
Build a portfolio that proves specialized knowledge
Technical SEO, structured data, Core Web Vitals, and enterprise-scale content strategy are harder to offshore and easier to justify for visa purposes. A portfolio showing deep technical expertise strengthens both your hire and sponsorship case.
Use Migrate Mate to find sponsorship-ready employers
Migrate Mate filters job listings by visa sponsorship availability, so you spend time only on roles where employers have already indicated willingness to sponsor, rather than discovering sponsorship policies mid-application process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does SEO Manager qualify as a specialty occupation for H-1B purposes?
Yes, SEO Manager generally qualifies as a specialty occupation when the role requires a bachelor's degree or higher in a specific field such as marketing, communications, or computer science. The key is that the employer's job description must specify a degree requirement in a directly related field, not simply state that any bachelor's degree is acceptable. Roles emphasizing technical SEO, data analysis, or enterprise-level strategy tend to have the strongest specialty occupation arguments.
What degree do I need for an employer to sponsor my H-1B as an SEO Manager?
USCIS looks for a bachelor's degree in a field directly related to the job duties. Marketing, digital communications, computer science, and data analytics all map well to SEO Manager responsibilities. A general business degree is harder to justify unless your coursework included substantial marketing or analytics components. If your degree field does not match, three years of relevant work experience can substitute for each year of missing formal education under USCIS equivalency rules.
Which visa types commonly sponsor SEO Manager roles?
H-1B visa is the most common sponsorship path for SEO Managers at U.S. employers. Australian citizens can pursue the E-3 visa, which has no lottery and a much faster timeline. Canadians and Mexicans may qualify under the TN visa if their role aligns with qualifying professional categories. Candidates with an exceptional track record of industry recognition, speaking engagements, or published work may also explore the O-1A visa for extraordinary ability.
How competitive is H-1B sponsorship for SEO Manager positions?
Sponsorship availability varies significantly by employer size and industry. Large tech companies, SaaS platforms, and e-commerce firms with established immigration programs sponsor SEO roles more readily than small agencies. The H-1B lottery selects roughly 20 to 25 percent of eligible registrations in a typical year, so timing and employer fit matter. Browse Migrate Mate to identify employers who have actively sponsored similar digital marketing roles, which is a strong indicator of future willingness.
Can an SEO Manager on OPT or STEM OPT get sponsored before their authorization expires?
Yes, and timing is critical. Standard OPT lasts 12 months, while STEM OPT extensions add 24 months for eligible graduates. Your employer needs to file an H-1B petition before your OPT expires, and because H-1B has an annual April filing window with an October 1 start date, you may need to plan across multiple lottery cycles. If your OPT expires before an approved H-1B takes effect, a cap-gap provision may bridge the gap if you remain with the same sponsoring employer.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Seo Manager jobs?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.