We're hiring! News Writer, SEO Manager and Affiliate Marketing Manager

*Update, 4/11/21: wer're speeding up our search for a news writer, so if you think this job is for you don't hesitate to get in touch!* 

road.cc and our parent company F-at Digital is hiring again, and this time we're looking to fill three more roles. If you're a dynamic journalist/recent journalism graduate with a passion for cycling, an SEO specialist or you're well-versed in the art of affiliate marketing, we want to hear from you. 

Apply for the News Writer role on LinkedIn
Apply for the SEO Manager role on LinkedIn
Apply for Affiliate Marketing Manager role on LinkedIn 

Full details of all the jobs have been posted on LinkedIn where you can apply, but if you don't have an account feel free to read on and email recruitment [at] f-at.co.uk with your CV and covering letter. 

News Writer

This is an exciting, fast-moving role in which you will split your working days between providing road.cc’s standalone news coverage and running our daily Live Blog, a busy micro-site within road.cc. The ideal candidate could be a news journalist already with a passion for cycling, or a talented writer looking for their first full-time job in news journalism, with a cycling twist. You could be reporting on Highway Code changes for your first story of the day and then a short while later, be writing about one of the biggest races on the pro cycling calendar; so it’s important that you’re comfortable working in a fast-paced environment.

Your days working on our live blog will be all of the above, but in bitesize chunks and with a slightly different tone of voice. This means our ideal candidate will have a great sense of humour, and will be adept at finding blog-worthy material from social media, news feeds or search. You’ll work with the news editor and editor to shape the day’s news agenda for the site, identifying what will drive the most engagement and traffic.

Familiarity with the culture of cycling is a must for this role. That doesn’t mean you need to know who came 45th in the 2006 Tour de France, but you just need to have that little label inside your head that reads ‘cyclist’. 

Key tasks

• Sourcing and writing material for news stories and the live blog
• Liaising with the news team, editor and tech team
• Posting your stories on our social media channels
• Engaging with the audience
• Flagging up other content from around the site on the blog

What’s on offer

• Working with a multi-award winning team on a multi-award winning website
• Competitive salary
• Plenty of opportunities for career progression
• We are based in Bath, you don’t have to be

The ideal candidate will…

• Be a keen cyclist
• Have a sharp news sense and eye for the interesting or unusual
• Be a creative, dynamic and engaging writer
• A social media natural
• A cycling journalist already (well, we said ‘ideal’)
• Organised

The ideal candidate will have…

• Journalistic experience or qualification, plus media law training
• Good communication skills – you’ll need to communicate well with the rest of the team, your readers, PR and marketing people, industry insiders and more
• The ability to work under pressure

Working hours

• Five days per week
• On a rota with the other news team members to cover weekend shifts
• Flexible working hours, roughly 9:00am-5:30pm

Benefits

• Holiday entitlement: 20 days per annum + bank holidays
• Sick pay scheme: 10 days paid sick leave
• A desk and computer (if you need one) will be provided
• Bike loan scheme

SEO Manager

We’re looking for someone with an eye for data and detail to oversee SEO activity across our suite of sites (road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips). This is not necessarily a full-time role and can be performed remotely.

The role

• To monitor search, news and discovery traffic on road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips
• To audit the sites for current performance, and to work with the development team to make the changes necessary to improve search performance
• To monitor the health of the sites according to Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics, and to work with the development team to increase CWV scores
• To stay abreast of changes and updates in the SEO landscape and to keep the editorial and management teams up to date on best practice
• To identify subject areas where web traffic is high and search performance is poor, and work with the editorial teams to address any weak areas in content
• To benchmark our sites against competitor sites and identify areas for improvement
• To work with the affiliate/commercial teams to help to implement best practice for affiliate linking across the suite of sites
• To be hands-on updating site content where required to improve search performance
• To report on SEO performance to the management team on a regular basis

You will be

• Experienced with SEO and data analysis using a broad range of tools
• Able to demonstrate experience of, and success at, improving search performance on a medium to large site
• Highly organised and used to working with a remote team
• A good communicator
• Experienced in using a suite of SEO tools to influence priorities and processes
• Alive to digital media trends and potential emerging platforms and channels

It’d be nice if you were

• Experienced with the Drupal CMS
• Interested in bikes

Working hours

• Flexible 
• Available between 9:00am-5:30pm on weekdays for communications with editorial, publishing and commercial teams

Benefits

• Holiday entitlement:  20 days per annum + bank holidays (full time).
• Sick pay scheme: 10 days paid sick leave (full time).
• A desk and computer (if you need one) will be provided.
• Bike loan scheme

Affiliate Marketing Manager

Finally, we're looking for an Affiliate Marketing Manager to analyse our current strategy and identify commercial opportunities for revenue growth. The successful candidate will need to be completely at home working in a data-driven digital commercial environment. They will also need to hit the ground running so a good commercial background is essential – if you don’t know your ROI from your ROAS please don’t apply!

The role

• You’ll be responsible for leading the affiliate strategy as well as developing effective programmes and campaigns
• You will have a distinct role within the wider commercial team and work closely with commercial, editorial and publishing colleagues
• You’ll be reporting on campaign effectiveness including competitive landscape and KPIs to senior stakeholders
• You’ll be responsible for analysing this data to make recommendations on opportunities for growth and managing risks
• A key part of your role will be to develop and implement communication strategies to ensure affiliates and marketplace channels are kept up to date with the latest marketing initiatives and product launches
• You’re data driven with a business development mindset. You fully understand business priorities and will use company knowledge and external market data to identify opportunities for commercial success

Experience and qualifications

• With prior experience in affiliate marketing, you will be someone who is always looking to build relationships with new partners
• Experience of working closely with at least one of the affiliate or sub networks (CJ affiliate, skimlinks, monetizer101, Rakuten, AWIN, Affiliate Future)
• Understanding of the wider digital space with a sharp eye for emerging trends
• Good understanding of media buying and how each advertising choice is measured
• Experience with reporting on performance
• Must have understanding of ROI, ROAS, CTR, AOV, C.A.V.E, Assisted conversions,
• Some knowledge of technical website tracking requirements is desirable
• A strong understanding of marketing planning and how affiliate marketing fits into the marketing mix
• Strong attention to detail, analytical skills, critical thinking paired with excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Some knowledge of technical website tracking requirements is desirable
• Knowledge of the cycling industry would be a bonus but not essential

Working hours

• Flexible 
• Available between 9:00am-5:30pm on weekdays for communications with commercial, editorial, and publishing teams

Benefits

• Holiday entitlement: 20 days per annum + bank holidays 
• Sick pay scheme: 10 days paid sick leave 
• A desk and computer (if you need one) will be provided
• Bike loan scheme

We are looking for a news writer sooner rather than later, and while we're willing to wait for the right person for the SEO Manager and Affiliate Marketing Manager roles, we're looking to compile our list of candidates soon. You can either head over to the ads on LinkedIn (linked above) to apply, or you can email recruitment [at] f-at.co.uk with your CV and covering letter, plus salary expectations. 

We're looking forward to hearing from suitable applicants for all three roles during an exciting time for our company. Best of luck to all those applying!