SEO Lead

As a global online auction platform, Collecting Cars delivers 24/7 auctions for cars, motorcycles, and automobilia. Alongside Collecting.com, we have successfully sold over £1.3bn worth of lots across the UK, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Hong Kong and the Middle East. We are building the modern alternative to the traditional auction house: the expertise and curation, without the friction or the gatekeeping. We are now in search of a SEO Lead to join at our London HQ as we continue to grow.

The Role

The SEO Lead at Collecting Cars and Collecting.com is a commercially minded growth owner who drives our visibility across every channel. This role is essential in owning our organic presence across search, AI answers and social discovery, in every market and vertical we trade in, along with shaping how that presence converts into buyers and sellers on the platform internationally.

Search is evolving beyond blue links. While traditional SEO remains vital, a growing number of global collectors and car enthusiasts now use AI-driven search engines and conversational models to discover and research vehicles and rare and sought after pieces to add to their collections . We are looking for an innovative strategist who can master traditional organic search while establishing our brand’s authority inside AI answers and generative search engines.

You will be accountable not just for traffic, but for the commercial outcomes it drives, working closely with content, product and engineering teams to turn visibility into revenue. To succeed in this role, you must bring deep expertise in search strategy and the confidence to lead cross-functional initiatives at a senior level.

Responsibilities

• Architect and execute a global search strategy using technical SEO, on page optimisation, content, site architecture, structured data, and internal linking across all operating markets.
• Partner with product and engineering to drive the technical SEO roadmap, taking immediate ownership of fully scoped, high-impact technical initiatives.
• Establish and define our strategy for AI Overviews, generative search, and conversational AI assistants.
• Benchmark and continuously optimise our brand's presence and citation authority across next generation AI discovery engines in an evolving category.
• Transform our content estate, tens of thousands of vehicle listings, auction results, marque, and model pages into a compounding, organic traffic engine.
• Design architectural solutions to maximise indexability, relevance, and conversion across marketplace inventory.
• Own search visibility and content discoverability across enthusiast platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, and automotive forums.
• Partner closely with the Head of Editorial (who owns content creation) to ensure multi-channel content is structured and optimised to rank and be discovered where automotive enthusiasts search.
• Tailor organic search strategies to local market behaviours, determining international content priorities, localised search intent, and target investment strategies by region.
• Design, implement and maintain robust measurement models that directly tie organic search performance (clicks, rankings, impressions) to core business outcomes, specifically inventory listings, user registrations, and auction/bidding activity.
• Direct, brief, and hold accountable external search agencies and partners, setting high standards for deliverable quality and performance outcomes.
• Serve as a hands-on individual contributor with total strategic leadership and accountability over the organic channel.

Required Skills and Experience

• A minimum of 6 years as a SEO practitioner who is comfortable leading channels and operating as an external partner,
• Proven experience diving directly into Google Search Console, deep crawl data, log files, and live SERPs on a weekly basis. This is a role for a practitioner who thrives in the technical details, not a high level delegate.
• Hands-on experience experimenting with Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), testing how AI Overviews and AI assistants surface content, and holding a clear, informed thesis on how generative AI is shifting user discovery patterns.
• Proven track record managing enterprise scale, complex digital architectures, such as marketplaces, classifieds, e-commerce platforms, or high-volume publishing sites.
• Extensive hands-on experience navigating the technical nuances of sites with hundreds of thousands (or millions) of URLs, including faceted navigation, canonicalisation strategies, indexation bloat, and crawl budget optimisation.
• Deep understanding of social platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, Instagram, enthusiast forums) as search and discovery engines rather than passive broadcast channels.
• Proven ability to translate search intent, keyword trends, and audience discovery behaviours into clear, actionable briefs for editorial and content teams to maximise reach across non-traditional search channels.
• Experienced across multiple markets and languages.
• A car or luxury enthusiast. Our audience can tell within a sentence whether you know your stuff!

Nice To Have

•  Two sided marketplace experience, where supply and demand need different treatment.
• Auction, classic car, collectibles or luxury background.
• SQL or Python, and comfort working directly with a data team.
• Conversion-rate optimisation experience.

Benefits 

• Competitive base salary + Performance bonus 
• Access to private health insurance for you and your family
• Professional development allowance 
• Company pension contribution
• 25 days holiday excluding bank holidays (an additional day per year served after 2 years of tenure) 
• The opportunity to attend amazing automotive and watch events