Principal Guest Experience Designer
Alaska Airlines
A complete application in a minute
Tailored resume and cover letter, ready to send.
Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Alaska Airlines seeks a Principal Guest Experience Designer to own and shape long-term guest journeys across portfolios. You will influence senior leaders, define future-state architectures, and lead high-impact initiatives spanning multiple product teams and channels.
The role requires deep expertise in guest and service design, experience with research-driven decisions, and strong communication to align roadmaps with business goals.
Qualifications
- 7 years of experience in guest experience design or related field.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in related field.
- Experience leading complex cross-portfolio experience work across products/journeys.
- Experience defining future-state architecture using research, experimentation, and data.
- Ability to influence senior leaders on priorities and investments.
- Working knowledge of accessibility standards and design systems.
- Proficiency with Figma, Miro, and related tools.
- Systems thinking for complex experiences connecting digital and human operations.
- Ability to combine qualitative guest insights with product data.
- Strong communication and executive storytelling skills.
- High school diploma or equivalent; 18+; U.S. work authorization.
Responsibilities
- Define future-state experience architecture across end-to-end journeys, digital products, and channels.
- Lead strategic discovery to address gaps spanning teams or business areas.
- Translate insights into principles, concepts, and recommendations for portfolios and roadmaps.
- Lead direction for high-impact initiatives spanning multiple product teams.
- Establish frameworks for consistent experience decisions balancing guest and business needs.
- Define cross-journey measures; use data to assess outcomes and guide investments.
- Make decisions on architecture and align senior leaders around end-to-end experience.
- Provide mentorship and governance to evolution of design systems and ways of working.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
Alaska Airlines
The Principal Guest Experience Designer is the sole subject matter expert in guest experience design for an assigned enterprise portfolio at Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, with shared accountability for a coherent guest experience across portfolios. As an individual contributor, this role defines the long-term experience strategy across interconnected guest journeys, digital products, and channels; exercises considerable latitude and initiative to solve complex, ambiguous challenges; and influences senior leaders to align priorities, roadmaps, and investments within the portfolio and across the broader guest journey.
- As the lead subject matter expert in guest experience design for an assigned enterprise portfolio, define future-state experience architecture and long-term strategic design direction across end-to-end guest journeys, digital products, and channels.
- Exercise considerable latitude and initiative to identify systemic guest-experience gaps spanning teams, technologies, or business areas, and lead strategic discovery when the problem, solution, or ownership is not yet defined.
- Translate guest insight, business strategy, market shifts, and emerging capabilities into experience principles, future-state concepts, and recommendations to influence portfolio and roadmap decisions.
- Lead experience direction for high-impact or transformative initiatives spanning multiple product teams or business areas, and create alignment around the intended end-to-end guest experience.
- Establish frameworks and standards to help teams make consistent experience decisions while balancing guest, business, operational, and technology needs.
- Define cross-journey measures and evaluation approaches, and use research, experimentation, and available behavioral or operational data to assess strategic outcomes and guide investment decisions.
- Make decisions on experience architecture, principles, and strategic design approaches and influence senior Product, Engineering, Analytics, and Business leaders when competing priorities or local decisions create fragmentation.
- Provide functional leadership, critique, and mentorship across the design practice; partner with other principals to resolve cross-portfolio dependencies and maintain a coherent end-to-end guest experience; and lead the evolution of design systems, governance, and ways of working.
Required
- 7 years of experience in guest experience design, product design, user experience design, service design, or a related discipline.
- Bachelor’s degree with a focus in industrial design, marketing, business, or related field, or an additional two years of relevant training/experience in lieu of this degree.
- Demonstrated experience leading highly complex, ambiguous, or cross-portfolio experience work and shaping direction across multiple products, journeys, or business areas.
- Experience defining future-state experience architecture, principles, strategic concepts, and evaluation approaches using research, experimentation, and behavioral or operational data.
- Experience influencing senior Product, Engineering, Analytics, operational, and business leaders to align priorities, roadmaps, tradeoffs, and investments around an end-to-end experience vision.
- Working knowledge of accessibility standards, design systems, and responsive digital experiences.
- Proficiency with modern design, collaboration, and prototyping tools, such as Figma, Miro, or comparable platforms.
- Demonstrated systems thinking and experience designing complex experiences where digital interfaces connect with human operations, service processes, or physical environments.
- Ability to combine qualitative guest insights with quantitative product data from analytics, experimentation, or behavioral tools to inform design decisions and measure outcomes.
- Ability to connect experience strategy and design decisions to guest needs, business priorities, operational realities, and measurable enterprise outcomes.
- Exceptional communication, storytelling, facilitation, and executive presentation skills, with the ability to build alignment across diverse senior stakeholders and mentor design practitioners.
- High school diploma or equivalent.
- Minimum age of 18.
- Must be authorized to work in the U.S.
Preferred
- Experience designing e-commerce, travel, or other large-scale consumer experiences.
- Experience using behavioral, operational, or product-performance data to improve guest journeys.
- Experience designing experiences that cross digital channels or connect digital and operational touchpoints.
Embody our values to own safety, do the right thing, be caring and kind, and deliver performance.
$141,250-$211,900 / year
Pay will be based on multiple factors, including and not limited to location, relevant experience/level and skillset while balancing internal equity relative to other Alaska/Hawaiian/Horizon employees. Alaska/Hawaiian/Horizon is committed to fair, unbiased compensation along with competitive benefits in all locations in which we operate.
Note: We don’t typically hire at the top of the range.
Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Horizon Air pay and benefits can vary by company, location, number of regularly scheduled hours worked, length of employment, and employment status.
- Free stand-by travel privileges on Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines & Horizon Air
- Comprehensive well-being programs including medical, dental and vision benefits
- Generous 401k match program
- Annual bonus plans
- Generous holiday and paid time off
For more information about Alaska/Hawaiian/Horizon Total Rewards please visit our career site and view benefits.
It is the policy of Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Horizon Air to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment and to ensure equal opportunity in all terms, conditions, and benefits of employment or potential employment.
We also prohibit discrimination and harassment against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information and other legally protected categories.
We have established an EEO Compliance Program under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 503”) and the Vietnam Era Veteran’s Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (“VEVRAA”). All applicants and employees are treated without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. In addition, we have established an audit and reporting system to allow for effective measurement of its equal employment opportunity activities.
- Recruit, hire, train and promote qualified persons in all job titles, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information and any other legally protected categories;
- Ensure that employment decisions are based only on valid job requirements; and
- Ensure that all personnel actions and employment activities such as compensation, benefits, promotions, layoffs, return from layoff, Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Horizon Air sponsored programs, and tuition assistance will be administered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information and other legally protected categories.
Employees and applicants for employment will not be subjected to harassment, intimidation, threats, coercion or discrimination because they have engaged or may engage in (1) filing a complaint, (2) opposing any act or practice made unlawful by, or exercising any other right protected by, any Federal, State or local law requiring equal opportunity, including Section 503 and the equal opportunity provisions of VEVRAA, or (3) assisting or participating in any investigation, compliance evaluation, hearing, or any other activity related to the administration of any Federal, State or local law requiring equal opportunity, including Section 503 and the equal opportunity provisions of VEVRAA.
Alaska Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines & Horizon Air are regulated by the Department of Transportation (DOT – regulations, 49 CFR part 40) and all applicants are advised that post-offer and/or pre-employment drug testing will be conducted to determine the presence of marijuana, cocaine, opioids, phencyclidine (PCP) and amphetamines or a metabolite of these drugs prior to any offer or employment or transfer into a safety-sensitive position. Failure to submit to testing or positive indications of drug use will render the applicant ineligible for employment with Alaska Airlines/Hawaiian Airlines/Horizon Air and any employment offer will be withdrawn.
Full-Time
Exempt
Regular
'/%3e%3cpath%20d='M101.744%2012.4726L102.894%2016.1947L99.0021%2013.2201L101.744%2012.4726ZM105.3%208.40937H100.488L99.0026%203.59473L97.5116%208.41047L92.7%208.40385L96.5965%2011.3834L95.1055%2016.1942L99.0021%2013.2196L101.408%2011.3834L105.3%208.40992V8.40937Z'%20fill='white'/%3e%3cdefs%3e%3clinearGradient%20id='paint0_linear_5593_1381'%20x1='90'%20y1='9.44471'%20x2='99'%20y2='9.44471'%20gradientUnits='userSpaceOnUse'%3e%3cstop%20stop-color='%2300AD70'/%3e%3cstop%20offset='0.998594'%20stop-color='%2300B67A'/%3e%3cstop%20offset='1'%20stop-color='%23DCDCE6'/%3e%3c/linearGradient%3e%3c/defs%3e%3c/svg%3e){kind=small}
