Search Manager Growth Marketing

About this role

We’re leading the way in redefining the workwear category. Our mission is to engineer better boots and apparel for our country’s tradesmen and women by working directly with real workers to learn what they actually need to execute their jobs.

The BRUNT team is not only devoted to improving on the old workwear standards, but we’re also creating a community that tradesmen and women can call their own. From our weekly hangouts at the BRUNT Garage, to hosting events across the country, we’re all about getting boots on the ground and building something real with the BRUNT crew.

What You’ll Do

BRUNT is seeking a Search Manager to lead our paid search and shopping program and bring both paid search and SEO in-house. You’ll be the hands-on owner of Google Ads and Microsoft Ads (Search, Shopping, and PMax), the day-to-day lead on our search vendor partnerships, and the person who finally gives BRUNT a dedicated owner for SEO and AI/LLM search visibility, using AI tools to punch above what a typical one-person search function can do.

This is an in-office role based at our North Reading, MA headquarters, reporting directly to the VP of Growth. You’ll work closely with our Paid Media, Creative, and Digital Product teams to grow non-brand search and shopping revenue, reduce our reliance on branded search, and build the technical and content foundation SEO needs to compete.

How You’ll Do It

Paid Search & Shopping Strategy

• Own BRUNT’s paid search and shopping program across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, including Brand, Non-Brand Search, and Shopping/PMax, with full accountability for spend, budget pacing, and performance against ROAS, CAC, and margin targets.

• Build and maintain a funnel-based non-brand campaign architecture (awareness, consideration, purchase) to grow acquisition beyond BRUNT’s current dependence on branded search.

• Manage keyword strategy, search term mining, and negative keyword hygiene; monitor for and correct PMax/Shopping cannibalization of branded queries.

• Own Quality Score, RSA asset testing, and bid strategy by campaign type, including correcting overly aggressive automated bidding on brand terms.

• Monitor competitor activity and auction dynamics, including auction insights and impression share, to inform bid strategy and defend or grow BRUNT’s position in category searches.

Vendor & Feed Management

• Serve as BRUNT’s day-to-day owner of our search vendor relationships, including bidding strategy, feed A/B testing, and performance reporting.

• Lead the transition of paid search and shopping management fully in-house, including offboarding our current search agency.

• Own Google Merchant Center feed health, including titles, attributes, and categorization, and quickly resolve disapprovals and feed errors.

• Partner with Digital Product on Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) readiness and structured product data as Google’s AI-driven shopping surfaces evolve.

SEO & AI Search Visibility

• Own BRUNT’s technical SEO foundation: indexation and crawl hygiene, Core Web Vitals, canonicalization, and schema markup (Product, FAQ, Review).

• Build BRUNT’s SEO content engine, including trade- and use-case pages, comparison and buying guides, and fit and durability content, using AirOps and other AI tools to scale output without a dedicated content team.

• Develop BRUNT’s approach to answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO) so BRUNT surfaces accurately in AI search tools and LLM-driven shopping assistants.

• Work with affiliate, social, PR, and community teams to identify opportunities and build out action plans for expanding BRUNT’s presence in the search and AI ecosystem through external relationships and content.

• Monitor organic and unpaid Shopping tab performance in Google Search Console and GA4, isolating the lift from feed and content work beyond paid.

Reporting & Measurement

• Own weekly and monthly search reporting, including the branded vs. non-branded split, new customer acquisition, spend efficiency, and channel health, in plain language for leadership.

• Bring an incrementality-first mindset to search and shopping investment, prioritizing tests that validate true impact before scaling spend.

• Leverage AirOps and other AI tools (Claude and similar) to run content briefs, feed copy generation, landing page optimization, and reporting narrative.

• Contribute search and shopping data to The Operator, our internal media intelligence platform.

What You Need to Succeed

• 5+ years of hands-on experience managing paid search and shopping campaigns (Google Ads and Microsoft/Bing Ads) for a DTC or eCommerce brand; agency-side experience welcome.

• Proven ability to grow non-brand search and shopping revenue and reduce dependence on branded search.

• Working knowledge of technical SEO fundamentals (schema markup, site architecture, Core Web Vitals) and the confidence to own SEO priorities without a dedicated SEO team.

• Comfortable managing outside vendors and agencies and holding them accountable to performance targets.

• Technically fluent, comfortable with the Google Ads API and Google Merchant Center, and confident using AI tools (e.g., Claude, AirOps) to scale content and reporting output.

• Comfort in spreadsheets (Google Sheets/Excel), including pivot tables, filters, and lookup-style formulas, to build and maintain reporting.

• Strong analytical rigor, with experience in (or genuine curiosity about) incrementality testing and measurement beyond platform-reported metrics.

• Excellent written communication and the ability to translate search performance into a clear narrative for non-specialist stakeholders.

• Passion or appreciation for the trades and BRUNT’s mission.

Nice to Have (Not Required)

• Experience with GA4 and Google Search Console.

• Exposure to answer engine optimization (AEO), generative engine optimization (GEO), or LLM search visibility work.

• Familiarity with feed management or bid-op

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