About the role
Canva Arabic SEO Lead (MENA) | SmartRecruiters Google Chrome Microsoft Edge Apple Safari Mozilla Firefox Arabic SEO Lead (MENA) Full-time Recruitment type: Permanent Job Description
About
the Team At Canva, we create tools that empower the world to design. Our mission is to democratize design and empower creativity for anyone and everyone, on every platform. Since launching in August 2013, Canva has grown exponentially — we're one of the world's fastest-growing startups, and the journey has only just begun. International is becoming Canva's biggest growth driver in 2026 and beyond. To reach our foundational goal of having 1 in 5 internet users use Canva every month, we're shifting from translating English successes to implementing truly local strategies that resonate with and convert local audiences. The SEO group spans the globe with keyword researchers, technical SEO specialists, content specialists, copywriters, engineers, data analysts, designers, and operations specialists. As the Arabic SEO Lead across key markets (Saudi Arabia, UAE, GCC, and Egypt), you'll be part of the Logged Out Experience (LOX) Group and International Supergroup, working in a dual alignment model — embedded in your region team locally while contributing to Central SEO globally.
About
the Role You’ll lead Canva’s SEO growth for Arabic across key markets (Saudi Arabia, UAE, GCC, and Egypt) — defining, executing, and scaling a strategy that reflects the unique realities of your market. This isn’t about following a global playbook; it’s about building one for your region. You’ll own the end-to-end SEO strategy across technical, content, and authority-building pillars — verifying the opportunity, prioritising what matters, and delivering measurable growth in sessions, signups, and engagement. Your goal is to help Canva reach 20% market penetration within the next 2–3 years, starting from our current 5%. As the Arabic SEO Lead, you’ll operate at the intersection of local strategy and global systems. You’ll be embedded in your Country team as a strategic partner to your Region Manager, while also contributing to Canva’s centralised SEO engine within the Logged Out Experience (LOX) Group You’ll be supported by a global network of experts — International SEO Leads, Technical SEOs, Product Managers, and Content Specialists — and have access to Canva’s proprietary SEO platforms and best-in-class third-party tools. You’ll also collaborate closely with your International SEO Strategist, who provides capability leadership, coaching, and alignment across markets. Success in this role means running a high-performing, locally embedded SEO operation that: Achieves measurable impact and market penetration goals. Operates autonomously while aligned to Canva’s global systems and standards. Surfaces insights, innovations, and frameworks that help scale the Truly Local SEO model across 40+ markets. You’ll thrive here if you’re both a strategist and an operator — equally comfortable running audits, leading discussions with your Region Manager, mentoring local SEOs, and proposing scalable solutions that improve how we grow internationally. What you’ll do Strategic SEO Leadership Lead the end-to-end SEO strategy for Saudi Arabia, UAE, GCC, and Egypt, spanning technical, content, and authority pillars. Translate market insights into a focused, high-impact roadmap aligned with Canva’s international growth goals. Continuously evaluate market performance, adapt to shifts in user behaviour, and prioritise the highest-ROI initiatives. Represent SEO as a strategic function — not an execution layer — in country planning discussions (your strategies align with your region’s strategies, and contribute to building our global SEO growth engine) Team Building & Capability Development Build and lead a high-performing local SEO team (generalists, content specialists, outreach experts) as the market scales. Define clear goals, rituals, and development plans to grow your team’s autonomy and impact. Foster a culture of ownership, curiosity, open communication and experimentation within your team and across the country organisation. Market Expertise & Competitive Intelligence Become Canva’s definitive expert on the Arabic search landscape — platforms, user intent, competitors, and trends. Continuously analyse search behaviour, market signals, and competitive activity to uncover new opportunities and influence the MENA roadmap. Validate local hypotheses through data and user insights, ensuring every initiative has measurable rationale. Content & Localisation Strategy Partner with localisation and design teams to deliver high-quality, locally relevant content that resonates with your market’s culture and search behaviour. Prioritise and optimise high-impact categories, combining English-to-local localisation with bespoke content creation. Collaborate with central teams to leverage scalable systems (creator templates, internal linking, AI tools) while tailoring them for local impact. Technical Excellence & Link Building Maintain strong technical foundations: site speed, indexation, structured data, hreflang implementation, and mobile optimisation. Partner with the i18n Technical SEO Specialist to identify and address localised technical needs. Define and oversee link-building goals and tactics, using outreach specialists and local partnerships to improve authority signals. Performance Analytics & Reporting Develop country-specific KPIs aligned with both SEO and country business goals. Monitor and analyse performance across all key metrics — sessions, signups, returning users, and visibility. Communicate results and learnings transparently with stakeholders across Country, International SEO, and Central Growth teams. Surface insights proactively, highlighting what’s working, what’s not, and how you’ll pivot for improvement. Navigating the Evolution of Search & Discovery Monitor AI search and discovery trends across your country—tracking how users find information through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, and other emerging AI-powered platforms Assess channel viability in your market: Determine where traditional SEO still drives strong ROI versus where AI discovery, social search, or other channels should be prioritized Experiment with AI optimization strategies: test approaches for visibility in AI-generated answers, LLM citations, and next-generation discovery experiences Document learnings for the global SEO engine: Share what's working (or not working) with AI search optimization in your country to inform how Canva approaches these emerging channels globally