Eight Agencies Compete for Scarce SEO Talent as AI Search Demand Surges

Eight major agencies are simultaneously recruiting senior organic search professionals, with salaries reaching US$260,000 annually, as client demand for AI search visibility reshapes how agencies compete for talent.

Eight Agencies, One Talent Pool

The hiring surge spans both independent shops and holding company agencies. Kinesso, Digitas, Wpromote, Kepler, Tinuiti, Critical Mass, Mindgruve, and Brainlabs all have open director-level or above positions in organic search and AI discoverability, according to Digiday reporting.

Brainlabs posted the highest advertised salary in the current cycle: US$260,000 for a managing director role. The agency's existing search team numbers 120 people, and it has added at least 10 new hires in the current recruitment push. Typical director-level roles at competing agencies are advertised between US$100,000 and US$150,000.

"Every brand wants to better understand how they get themselves mentioned and cited on ChatGPT and on Gemini," said Adam Edwards, Chief Product Officer at Brainlabs.

A Shrinking Pool of Qualified Candidates

The competition is intensifying against a bifurcated job market. Content-focused search roles declined 28% year-over-year in Q4 2024. At the same time, technical SEO requirements appeared in 75% of job listings, up from 71% previously.

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The median SEO salary stood at US$75,000 in Q4 2024. The US$260,000 Brainlabs posting sits 247% above that figure, reflecting how scarce the target candidate profile currently is.

Agencies are screening for familiarity with AI search monitoring tools Profound and Scrunch, alongside hands-on experience with large language models (AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini) and website schema. These were not standard hiring criteria two years ago, and no established talent pipeline exists for this profile.

Remote roles have also contracted to just 34% of listings by Q4 2024, with 45% now requiring on-site presence. That further tightens the effective candidate pool agencies can realistically recruit from.

Client Demand Is Driving the Restructure

Agencies confirm the hiring push is client-led, not internally initiated. Megan Shriver, VP of Organic Growth at Wpromote, stated: "Every single client is interested in how organic discoverability on AI and LLMs works." Wpromote maintains a 70-person organic search team and added three staffers in the past year, with additional roles currently open.

Grant Owens, Chief Strategy Officer at Critical Mass, confirmed a structural shift in how client briefs arrive: "We're now getting many more briefs that are combining paid, SEO, and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization, which involves optimizing content to appear in AI-generated answers) together." Critical Mass is recruiting a VP of Search specifically to manage these integrated briefs.

Tinuiti began building its combined AI discoverability and SEO team in mid-2024, earlier than most named agencies. EVP of Innovation Simon Poulton cited "phenomenal client engagement" and confirmed further hiring is planned.

What This Means for APAC Brand Leaders

For regional CMOs evaluating agency partnerships, the concentration of senior-level open roles across these agencies signals a genuine capability gap, not a marketing refresh. Agencies unable to attract this talent will face real service shortfalls as client demand peaks.

The SEO services market is projected to reach US$217 billion by 2030, with the number of search professionals forecast to grow 22% over the same period. Supply has not yet caught up with demand, which means the premium compensation environment is likely to persist.

As Shriver concluded: "This is the biggest thing that's happened to SEO, ever. If you're not doing AI search, you're not going where SEO is going."

APAC brand leaders should ask agency partners directly which staff hold expertise in AI search monitoring tools, and whether existing contracts cover Answer Engine Optimization as a distinct deliverable.