Who We Are
VML is a global creative company that combines brand experience, customer experience, and commerce to create connected brands that drive growth. Guided by a Human First philosophy, VML is known for its innovative work for brands and consistently ranks among the world’s leading creative companies, including the WARC Creative 100. VML’s global network spans 55+ markets with principal offices in Buenos Aires, Kansas City, London, New York, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore.
VML is part of WPP, the trusted growth partner for the world's leading brands. Powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform WPP Open, WPP unites cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, creativity, production, enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel.
For more information, please visit www.vml.com and follow along on LinkedIn #WeAreVML.
About the role
WPP Enterprise Solutions in Amsterdam is the central hub for SEO and GEO expertise across the WPP network. From our team, we work with major national and international organisations on complex challenges across search, websites, digital platforms and AI-driven discovery.
Our team currently consists of ten SEO and GEO specialists and is growing rapidly. We are therefore looking for a Senior Technical SEO Specialist to strengthen our technical capabilities.
This is explicitly not a traditional SEO role with some technical SEO added on top. We are looking for someone who approaches SEO from a technical perspective. Someone who understands how websites, platforms, JavaScript frameworks, crawlers, rendering, APIs and search engines interact, and who can independently investigate and solve complex technical problems.
You are comfortable working with SEO specialists, developers, solution architects, product teams and other technical stakeholders. You are able to go deep into the technology when needed, while also translating complex findings into clear priorities, recommendations and implementations for enterprise clients.
What you will do
As a Senior Technical SEO Specialist, you will be responsible for the technical quality and scalability of our SEO solutions. You will work on complex websites and digital ecosystems where standard SEO checklists are simply not enough.
Your responsibilities will include:
- Conducting advanced technical SEO audits for large and complex websites, platforms and international domain structures.
- Analysing crawling, indexing and rendering to identify the root causes of technical SEO and indexation issues.
- Working with modern JavaScript frameworks and rendering architectures, including SSR, CSR, SSG and hybrid rendering.
- Analysing HTML, JavaScript, HTTP requests, response headers, status codes, redirects, canonicalisation and robots directives.
- Investigating and optimising crawl architecture, internal linking and information architecture for websites with hundreds of thousands or millions of URLs.
- Advising on complex technical challenges involving migrations, replatforming, URL structures, faceted navigation, pagination, internationalisation and hreflang.
- Performing log file analysis to understand how Googlebot and other crawlers interact with websites and to improve crawl efficiency.
- Developing scripts, tooling and automation that make recurring analyses faster, more reliable and more scalable.
- Reviewing technical solutions, specifications and implementations from an SEO perspective before they go live.
- Working closely with developers and engineering teams to translate SEO recommendations into clear technical requirements and tickets.
The technical expertise we are looking for
For this role, we are looking for someone whose technical capabilities go well beyond using standard SEO tools.
You have a strong understanding of:
- HTML, CSS and JavaScript, and can independently analyse source code and identify technical issues.
- HTTP and web architecture, including requests and responses, status codes, caching, redirects, headers and CDN behaviour.
- JavaScript SEO and the implications of client-side and server-side rendering for crawling, rendering and indexing.
- Technical concepts such as SSR, CSR, SSG, hydration and dynamic rendering.
- Crawling and indexing, and how search engines technically process websites.
- txt, XML sitemaps, canonical tags, meta robots, X-Robots-Tag and other crawling and indexing directives.
- Structured data and Schema.org.
- Core Web Vitals and web performance.
- International websites, hreflang and complex multi-market architectures.
- Website and platform migrations.
- Crawl budget and scalable website architectures.
You do not need to be a software engineer in every area. However, we do expect you to be comfortable reading code, manipulating data, working with APIs and building scripts or technical solutions when needed.
What seniority means to us
Being senior means more than being able to independently deliver a technical SEO audit.
We expect you to be able to break down complex technical problems where there is no obvious answer. You combine experience, data and technical knowledge to define your own investigative approach and develop solutions that can realistically scale within enterprise organisations.
You will also:
- Proactively improve the way we work, using tooling and AI to increase efficiency, quality and impact.
- Make significant improvements to our SEO guidelines, workflows and processes.
- Develop innovative solutions to complex SEO challenges, including algorithm changes, large-scale site architecture, crawling and automation.
- Build frameworks, templates, scripts and automations that can be adopted across multiple clients and projects.
- Independently develop new approaches for challenges where no standard solution exists.
- Think beyond what needs to change and consider how solutions can be technically and organisationally implemented at scale.
- Help other SEO specialists grow their technical capabilities.
Act as a senior technical sparring partner for our clients.
What you'll need:
- 10+ years of experience in Technical SEO, with a strong track record of solving complex technical SEO challenges for large-scale, international and/or enterprise websites.
- Currently based in the Netherlands and able to work from our WPP office in Amsterdam.
- Deep technical knowledge of how modern websites are built, crawled, rendered and indexed, including strong expertise in HTML, JavaScript, HTTP, web architecture and rendering technologies.
- Strong experience working with large and complex website architectures, including crawling and indexation, faceted navigation, internationalisation, migrations, internal linking and crawl budget optimisation.
- Experience with Python and/or JavaScript for scripting and automation is highly desirable, as is experience with SQL, BigQuery or comparable data environments.
- A proven ability to turn complex technical findings into clear, actionable recommendations for developers, product teams, architects and senior stakeholders.
- Experience developing scalable frameworks, tooling, templates or automations that can be applied across multiple clients or projects.
- An eager and proactive mindset, with a strong interest in exploring how AI, automation, emerging search technologies and GEO can improve both our work and our clients' performance.
- Fluent in English. Dutch is highly desirable.
What we offer:
We offer a competitive salary, a vibrant and collaborative culture and ample opportunities for professional growth. You'll be part of a global network of talent, working on projects that truly make an impact.
Our compensation:
- A gross annual salary range of 80,000€ - 95,000€, based on experience level.
- Hybrid working flexibility.
- Access to learning platforms .
- Wellbeing initiatives including mental health support programs and wellness activities.
- Employee discounts and access to WPP/VML global benefits ecosystem.
- Participation in team events, agency gatherings and cross-discipline workshops.
- At WPP ES, we believe in investing in people who build long-term value for our clients and their customers. Your growth is part of our growth.
We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.
WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.
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