Manager SEM Quill

Manager, Search Engine Marketing — Quill

Work Model: Onsite, Lincolnshire, IL

About Quill

Quill is a Staples company focused on helping businesses succeed with the products, services, and solutions they need to operate effectively. The Growth Marketing team plays an important role in driving acquisition, order growth, customer value, and profitable performance across digital channels.

About the Role

Quill is seeking a Manager, Search Engine Marketing to lead the day-to-day strategy, execution, performance management, and optimization of its paid search program across Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, including Search and Shopping/PLA campaigns. This role serves as Quill’s internal SEM owner and is accountable for ensuring the channel operates with strong analytical discipline, agency accountability, execution rigor, and alignment to acquisition, order growth, profitability, and customer value goals.

This is a manager-level individual contributor role with no direct reports today, but it requires leadership through influence, including directing external agency resources, coordinating cross-functional partners, and serving as a senior performance marketing thought partner across Growth Marketing forums.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Own the day-to-day health and performance of Quill’s paid search program across Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, including Search and Shopping/PLA campaigns.
• Lead the agency team responsible for SEM execution by setting priorities, defining deliverables, reviewing work quality, tracking commitments, and ensuring resources remain focused on the highest-value opportunities.
• Conduct regular in-platform analysis to identify performance drivers and opportunities across queries, campaigns, products, audiences, devices, geographies, bids, budgets, impression share, CPC, conversion, feed health, and other relevant dimensions.
• Diagnose unexpected performance changes quickly, develop hypotheses, isolate root causes, coordinate corrective actions, and escalate material risks as needed.
• Own SEM pacing and tactical budget decisions within approved investment plans and established guardrails.
• Develop and maintain an SEM testing and optimization roadmap covering campaign structure, bidding, creative, landing pages, feeds, promotional execution, and platform capabilities.
• Partner with Marketing Analytics to connect platform performance to customer economics, lifetime value, incrementality, and broader business outcomes.
• Create clear performance readouts, recommendations, and action plans for Growth Marketing leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.

What You Bring to the Table

• Strong SEM judgment and hands-on platform depth to independently evaluate performance, challenge recommendations, and diagnose issues.
• Excellent project and program management skills with the ability to coordinate campaigns, promotions, deadlines, assets, dependencies, and stakeholders.
• Strong analytical and quantitative skills with the ability to build hypotheses, work through platform data, and translate findings into business actions.
• High ownership, strong problem-solving instincts, and a bias for early issue detection and timely escalation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to influence peers, partners, and stakeholders without formal authority.
• Comfort working in a performance-oriented environment with changing platforms, business priorities, and operating conditions.
• Genuine interest in performance marketing, customer acquisition, e-commerce, and continuous improvement.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, economics, analytics, or a related field.
• Seven or more years of progressive paid search or performance marketing experience, including demonstrated ownership of scaled SEM programs.
• Hands-on experience building, managing, optimizing, analyzing, and reporting on paid search and Shopping campaigns.
• Demonstrated in-house experience managing an external paid media or SEM agency, including directing work, challenging recommendations, and holding partners accountable.
• Experience managing or materially influencing a large-scale SEM program; experience with a significant monthly media budget is strongly preferred.
• Advanced working knowledge of Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, including Search, Shopping/PLA, automated bidding, campaign structure, query analysis, and budget management.
• Experience with retail or e-commerce performance marketing and product- or feed-driven advertising.
• Strong Excel proficiency and demonstrated ability to independently analyze large or complex platform data sets.
• Experience with testing and experimentation, including forming hypotheses, defining success criteria, and translating results into improvements in strategy or execution.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior direct people-management experience or substantial formal coaching or mentoring responsibility.
• Working knowledge of paid social and SEO sufficient to contribute meaningfully in cross-channel discussions and identify areas of overlap with paid search.
• Experience partnering with analytics teams on lifetime value, incrementality, attribution, customer segmentation, or marginal-return analysis.
• Experience using SQL, business intelligence tools, or other analytical tools beyond spreadsheet analysis.
• B2B e-commerce or business-customer acquisition experience.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Staples is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values the diversity of its people, products, and services. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.

We Offer:

• Inclusive culture with associate-led Business Resource Groups
• Flexible PTO (22 days) and Holiday Schedule (7 observed paid holidays)
• Online and Retail Discounts, Company Match 401(k), Physical and Mental Health Wellness programs, and more!

The salary range represents the expected compensation for this role at the time of posting. The specific base pay may be influenced by a variety of factors to include the candidate's experience, skill set, education, geography, business considerations, and internal equity. In addition to base pay, this role may be eligible for bonuses, or other forms of variable compensation.

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Staples is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law.