ALASKA AIRLINES
2025-2026
Designing a Unified Employer Brand
Experience During an Airline Integration
As part of the People Team, I partnered with a leading Recruitment CRM provider to reimagine the redesign of Alaska Airlines' careers experience during the integration of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. The challenge wasn't simply refreshing a website. It was creating a unified employer brand that could attract talent while aligning our culture, helping candidates understand what it means to join our airline.
My role spanned UX strategy, information architecture, content design, stakeholder alignment, and visual experience design. I partnered with Talent Acquisition, Employer Brand, HR, Marketing, Communications, Engineering, and executive leadership to align on candidate experience, business priorities, employer branding, and implementation strategy. The result was a shared vision that balanced user needs with enterprise objectives while establishing a scalable foundation for future recruiting initiatives.
CLIENT
Alaska Airlines
YEAR
Jan 2025
TIMELINE
6 Weeks and Continued
The challenge
Following the merger, Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines operated independent careers websites, resulting in fragmented employer branding and inconsistent candidate experiences. As the company aligned around a single Talent Acquisition strategy, I led the redesign of the careers experience to create a unified employer brand that enabled scalable recruiting, improved career discovery, and presented one cohesive hiring experience across both airlines.
The careers site needed to:
• Communicate a unified employer brand
• Simplify the candidate journey
• Increase awareness of opportunities across both airlines
• Scale for thousands of open roles
• Support Talent Acquisition with an easier to maintain experience
This wasn't just a marketing challenge. It was an employee experience problem that began before day one.
33,000+ employees
across Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines,
Horizon Air, and McGee Air Services following the acquisition.
2,800+ employees hired
hired to support continued growth and operations,
reinforcing the importance of an effective recruiting experience.
Creating an airline people love
Creating an airline people love requires caring employees who love what they do. We are honored to have been included on Glassdoor's list of Best Places to Work in 2026.
The Outcomes
The redesign established a scalable foundation for Alaska Airlines' evolving employer brand and talent acquisition strategy. Designing during a merger reinforced that great UX extends far beyond interfaces. It requires aligning user needs, business strategy, and organizational change. By combining UX research, content strategy, and employer branding, we transformed a recruiting website into an experience that helps candidates envision their future at Alaska Airlines before they ever submit an application.
Led UX strategy across 7+ cross-functional teams.
Aligned stakeholders through multiple executive review cycles, culminating in VP of People approval.
Unified the careers experience across 3 airline brands.
Designed for a workforce of 33,000+ employees.
Supported enterprise recruiting across 140+ destinations.
