Director, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

MKTQ125R59

Databricks is hiring a Director of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to define how our brand shows up across every surface where buyers discover, evaluate, and choose data and AI platforms—from AI-powered answer engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude to Google AI Overviews and traditional search. This leader will build and scale a global GEO product function from the ground up, shaping the strategy, AI tooling and workflows, team, and operating model that turns AI and organic discovery into a durable growth engine for Databricks.

This is a build-the-function role: you'll set the strategy, do the hands-on work to prove it out, define how we measure success, and grow the team behind it. You'll sit at the center of content, product marketing, web, and demand gen — translating a fast-moving discipline into pipeline.

The impact you will have:

• Built a GEO function and operating model that reliably turns AI and organic discovery into a meaningful growth channel for Databricks, with a clear charter, roadmap, and engagement model for web, content, product marketing, and brand.
• Significantly increased Databricks’ visibility and share of citations across priority AI answer engines (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Google AI Overviews) so we consistently appear as a top recommended brand on high-intent product and category queries.
• Demonstrably grown qualified organic and AI-referred traffic, conversions, and influenced pipeline for priority product lines and audiences by aligning GEO strategy and experimentation with business goals.
• Stood up a robust GEO experimentation and measurement engine (tests on content structure, schema, semantic depth, technical changes) that produces a prioritized roadmap and measurable lifts in AI citation rate, sentiment, engagement, and downstream funnel performance.
• Improved the technical health and AI crawlability of high-value pages in partnership with Web, Engineering, and Marketing Systems, so that both traditional search engines and AI assistants can reliably access, understand, and surface Databricks content.
• Embedded GEO standards and playbooks across marketing and product teams, so new and refreshed content is consistently structured to be AI-citable and answer-focused, and GEO best practices show up in campaign, web, and content workflows by default.
• Built and led a high-performing GEO team, with clear roles, mentorship, and development paths, and established an executive-ready reporting and insights function that earns trust from the VP, CMO, and other senior stakeholders.

What we look for:

• 10+ years in technical search, discovery, or adjacent domains, including meaningful time owning systems that drive organic or AI-powered discovery in a high-growth environment.
• Deep technical foundation across web architecture, crawling and indexing, structured data/schema, Core Web Vitals, and log/crawl analysis, with a track record of working directly with engineers to ship changes at scale.
• Proven experience designing and running experimentation programs (on content structure, schema, and technical changes) that produce prioritized roadmaps and measurable lifts in visibility, traffic, and downstream business KPIs.
• Demonstrated success building from zero-to-one: defining a new function’s charter, roadmap, operating model, and metrics, and then hiring, coaching, and leading a team of ICs to deliver against it.
• Track record of building, mentoring, and managing high-performing teams – including setting clear expectations, providing regular coaching and feedback, and developing ICs into senior, highly autonomous operators.
• Strong analytical skills and comfort working hands-on with data and measurement tooling to connect AI/search performance to business impact and produce clear, executive-ready insights.
• Experience operating in a complex, cross-functional environment (e.g., web engineering, marketing systems, data/analytics, brand, product) and driving alignment and decisions without relying on formal authority.
• Clear, concise written communication, with an emphasis on technical specifications, experiment design docs, and straightforward executive updates rather than marketing copy.