AEO Specialist/Lead (AI / Answer Engine Optimization) - Contractor

Thorne

WorldwideremotePosted 1 month ago

Skill Required

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Key highlights

Daily AI visibility monitoring and competitive analysis in Profound
Ownership of AEO/AI-visibility roadmap with quarterly strategy collaboration with Croud
Cross-functional quarterback role across content, ecommerce, PR, Product, and Dev
3–5+ years technical/analytical marketing experience required
Hands-on SEO experience with SEO/AEO/GEO overlap understanding required
AI-native mindset required: comfortable using AI tools and automating repetitive marketing workflows

Role overview

This role focuses on daily AI visibility monitoring and analysis for Thorne using the Profound platform, translating competitive and performance data into actionable insights for leadership. The person owns the AEO/AI-visibility roadmap, collaborates with Croud on quarterly strategy, and serves as a cross-functional quarterback to drive execution across content, ecommerce, and PR channels. The role combines technical SEO knowledge, project management skills, and an AI-native mindset to scale marketing execution and automate repetitive work.

Responsibilities

Monitor Thorne's AI visibility, share of voice, average position, sentiment, and citation performance daily in Profound.
Flag competitive movement and emerging negative sources before they erode rankings or sentiment.
Distill Profound data into clear, actionable insights and recurring readouts for the VP of Growth and broader stakeholders.
Own and maintain the AEO/AI-visibility roadmap, translating Croud's strategic recommendations into a prioritized, resourced execution plan.
Partner with Croud on quarterly strategy, topic prioritization (Defend / Grow / Repair / Build), and measurement — this person helps define the strategy, not just execute it.
Relentlessly prioritize the backlog based on business impact, competitive pressure, and available resourcing.
Project-manage AEO initiatives across every key channel + channel owner: content/blog, site/ecommerce, and PR / media affiliate.
Partner directly with Product and Dev to scope, prioritize, and track AEO-related tickets (crawlability, structured data, PDP fixes) through a backlog with significant competing demand.
Apply the repeatable citation model across owned and editorial (for credible third-party validation)
Bring a builder's instinct to the role — spot manual, repetitive AEO work (data pulls, competitive tracking, content briefs) and use AI tools or lightweight automation to remove it.
Where there's appetite, extend that same AI-native approach to other growth marketing workflows across the broader team.

Requirements

3–5+ years in a technical or analytical marketing role (SEO, growth, content ops, or similar) — or a clear track record of being AI-native even without traditional tenure.
Hands-on SEO experience and a working understanding of how SEO and AEO/GEO overlap and diverge.
Comfort working in AI-visibility or analytics platforms (Profound or similar); able to turn raw data into a clear narrative and prioritized action plan.
Demonstrated project management / quarterback experience — able to rally and hold accountable stakeholders across content, product, dev, PR, and agency partners without formal authority over them.
Comfortable operating in a complex environment with a dev backlog and competing priorities; prioritizes relentlessly.
Genuine enthusiasm for AI tools and workflows, with interest in applying them to scale marketing execution.

Nice to have

Experience with digital PR or earned-media citation building.
Familiarity with ecommerce PDP/PLP optimization.
Prior experience managing an SEO/content agency relationship (agency- or client-side).
DTC, health, wellness, or CPG category experience.