SEM Senior Specialist

Development Counsellors International (DCI), headquartered in New York City, is looking to hire a Senior SEM Specialist to join our place marketing team in Charlotte, North Carolina.  For more information about DCI, a repeat winner of Outside Magazine’s “Best Places to Work,” visit www.aboutdci.com. 

Do you want to impact how communities grow? Are you interested in playing a role in creating jobs? Do you want to learn what motivates people to move locations, and then use that knowledge to help them find their ideal landing spot? 

We're looking for a data-driven, detail-oriented Senior Specialist (with some creative genius on the side) to join our digital team, with knowledge of search engine optimization and paid advertising. We need someone who is entrepreneurial and comfortable with a fast-changing environment. The ideal candidate should already have the technical skills we seek but be ready to learn and accelerate our status quo-busting philosophy. 

As a Senior Specialist, you will play a supportive role in executing multiple SEO and paid media campaigns targeting corporate executives, skilled workers and leisure travelers. Key responsibilities include client management, managing and optimizing paid social, search and display campaigns; reconciling advertising budgets; writing SEO content; making SEO updates and conducting targeted keyword research; reporting and basic analytics analysis; executing award-winning work under the pressures of the ever-changing demands of agency and client life. 

You will report directly to the Senior Director of SEM & Media but will work alongside client strategy and client success leads as well as the performance team. In addition, you will collaborate with DCI’s other service teams, like social/content, website, PR and more. 

As a firm that specializes in attracting visitors, businesses and a talented workforce to communities around the world, we’re looking for someone who has a passion for places and a keen understanding of what motivates a tourist, business executive or employee to pick a destination. The SEM Senior Specialist will have at least 2 years of experience, preferably with some knowledge of economic development, talent attraction and/or the tourism/travel marketing industry. 

Responsibilities  

• Assists client success leads and strategist with daily client management and project management. 

• Analyzes monthly paid and SEO performance reports to share key takeaways for client, including pinpointing trends and making recommendations on client campaigns. 

• Launches, manages and optimizes paid campaigns on Google Ads, Facebook Business Manager and LinkedIn; including building audiences, uploading ads, adjusting bids and keywords, and building UTMs. 

• Manages and monitors ongoing campaign performance and budget pacing. 

• Assists with SEO audits and services, including conducting keyword research, creating meta tags and alt tags, monitoring, on-page optimizations, and backlinking.  

• Writes new content optimized for search engines for clients in the economic development and talent attraction spaces. 

Skills: 

• Intermediate knowledge of SEO, with at least one year experience with on-page optimizations and writing new SEO content, as well as experience using SEMRush 

• Beginners to immediate proficiency or familiarity with paid ad platforms: Google Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, and/or Facebook Business Manager. 

• Beginners to intermediate proficiency with Google Analytics 4 & Google Ads; Google Tag Manager experience a plus. 

• Highly proficient in Microsoft Suite, with at least intermediate knowledge of Excel; Microsoft Teams experience a plus. 

• A self-starter with strong organizational skills and extreme attention to detail. 

• Strong client management and communication skills 

• Basic understanding of Google Looker Studio  

• Trustworthy, dependable, responsive, proactive and communicative, especially given the virtual work environment. 
   

Qualifications: 

• 2-3 years of SEO and paid media experience 

• 1 year of economic development, talent attraction or tourism experience preferred, but not required 

• 1 year of agency experience preferred; you’ll be working on multiple accounts simultaneously, requiring an organized individual comfortable in a constantly changing environment. 

• BA/BS in Marketing, Business, Communications, English or related field. 

Benefits: 

• Competitive base salary with unique “open book” management approach that delivers performance-based incentives 

• Medical/dental coverage 

• Professional mentoring/development  

• Flexible start times and flexible paid time off 

• 401k match