What is a Project Manager at Alaska Airlines?

As a Project Manager at Alaska Airlines—specifically within our Cobrand Program Management team—you will play a pivotal role in shaping the financial and experiential future of our loyalty ecosystem. Guided by our purpose to create an airline people love, this role focuses on the strategy and execution of cardholder engagement for the Alaska Airlines Atmos Rewards cobrand credit cards. You are not just managing timelines; you are driving a multi-billion-dollar portfolio that directly impacts our bottom line and guest loyalty.

In this position, you will own the cardholder engagement roadmap across the entire customer lifecycle. This means you will be responsible for driving activation, ongoing engagement, and benefit utilization through highly coordinated strategies. Your work will directly touch our guests through early-month-on-book communications, trigger-based campaigns, and targeted benefit education, translating complex program values into clear, timely, and relevant experiences.

What makes this role uniquely challenging and exciting is the scale of collaboration required. As a subject matter expert, you will partner closely with Bank of America, as well as internal Loyalty, Marketing, Analytics, and Technology teams. You will navigate complex datasets, balance internal and external stakeholder priorities, and continuously optimize campaigns to drive long-term spend, retention, and satisfaction for our most dedicated flyers.

Common Interview Questions

The following questions are representative of what candidates face during the Project Manager interview process at Alaska Airlines. While you should not memorize answers, use these to identify patterns in how we evaluate strategic thinking, data analysis, and behavioral alignment.

Strategic Marketing & Loyalty

• This category tests your understanding of the customer lifecycle and how to drive value within a cobrand credit card portfolio.
• What strategies would you implement to increase ongoing engagement for a mature cobrand credit card portfolio?
• Walk me through how you would design an early-month-on-book communication strategy for a new cardholder.
• How do you balance the need for short-term revenue generation with long-term cardholder retention?
• Describe a successful trigger-based campaign you launched. What was the trigger, and what were the results?
• How would you educate existing cardholders about a newly added, complex travel benefit?

Data & Analytics

• Interviewers want to see your hands-on ability to use data to inform decisions, optimize campaigns, and build compelling narratives.
• Tell me about a time you used Tableau or Alteryx to uncover a hidden trend in customer behavior.
• How do you design an A/B test for a targeted marketing email, and how do you measure success?
• If activation rates drop unexpectedly month-over-month, what data points would you investigate first?
• Describe a time when your data analysis led to a significant pivot in a project's strategy.
• How do you ensure that the dashboards you create are actually useful for cross-functional stakeholders?

Stakeholder Management & Leadership

• These questions evaluate your ability to influence without authority and manage complex relationships, particularly with external partners like Bank of America.
• Tell me about a time you had to influence an external partner to adopt a strategy they initially opposed.
• How do you manage a situation where the Marketing team and the Technology team have conflicting timelines for a campaign rollout?
• Describe a time you had to communicate a project delay or failure to senior leadership. How did you handle it?
• Give an example of how you build trust with a newly formed cross-functional team.
• How do you prioritize feature requests when multiple stakeholders claim their needs are the most urgent?

Behavioral & Cultural Fit

• We are looking for candidates who naturally embody our values: caring and kind, doing the right thing, and delivering performance.
• Tell me about a time you went above and beyond to improve a guest or customer's experience.
• Describe a situation where you had to make a difficult decision with incomplete information.
• How do you maintain high performance and attention to detail when managing multiple competing projects?
• Tell me about a time you advocated for doing the "right thing" even when it was unpopular or difficult.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Thorough preparation is the key to demonstrating that you are ready to manage high-stakes partnerships and complex engagement strategies. We want to see how you think, how you collaborate, and how you align with our core values.

You will be evaluated across the following key criteria:

• Role-Related Knowledge – We assess your understanding of loyalty programs, cobrand credit cards, and lifecycle marketing. Strong candidates will demonstrate a deep familiarity with how to drive activation, repeat spend, and benefit utilization within a multi-billion-dollar portfolio.
• Problem-Solving and Analytics – We look for an advanced analytical background. You must show how you navigate complex datasets, define segmentation and targeting strategies, and translate raw data from tools like Excel, Alteryx, or Tableau into actionable recommendations.
• Cross-Functional Leadership – We evaluate your ability to influence and collaborate. You need to prove you can align diverse teams—including Marketing, Analytics, UX, and external partners like Bank of America—toward a unified engagement roadmap.
• Culture and Values Fit – We measure how well you embody the Alaska Airlines values: own safety, do the right thing, be caring and kind, and deliver performance. Interviewers want to see that you share our passion for aviation, guest experience, and continuous improvement.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Project Manager at Alaska Airlines is designed to be rigorous, collaborative, and deeply reflective of the cross-functional nature of the role. You will typically begin with a recruiter phone screen to assess your baseline qualifications, compensation expectations, and general alignment with our core values. From there, you will advance to a comprehensive conversation with the hiring manager, focusing heavily on your past experiences with loyalty programs, marketing strategies, and data-driven decision-making.

If successful, you will be invited to a panel interview stage. This final round involves conversations with key cross-functional stakeholders, which may include representatives from Loyalty, Marketing, Analytics, and potentially external partnership liaisons. The pace is deliberate, ensuring we evaluate both your technical project management skills and your ability to navigate complex stakeholder ecosystems. We place a high premium on candidates who can clearly articulate their impact using data while maintaining a guest-centric mindset.

This visual timeline outlines the typical stages you will navigate, from the initial recruiter screen through to the final cross-functional panel interviews. Use this map to pace your preparation, ensuring you are ready to discuss high-level strategy early on, and prepared to dive deep into analytics and stakeholder scenarios during the final rounds. Expect variations in the exact panel composition based on current strategic initiatives.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed in your interviews, you must demonstrate proficiency across several core competencies. Interviewers will probe your past experiences and present hypothetical scenarios to see how you apply your skills in real-world contexts.

Loyalty Strategy and Lifecycle Marketing

• Your ability to design and execute a cardholder engagement roadmap is critical. Interviewers will assess how well you understand the customer journey, from early-month-on-book communications to long-term retention.
• Strong performance here means you can clearly articulate how to translate card features and benefits into timely, actionable messaging. You should demonstrate a proven track record of driving activation and repeat spend.

Be ready to go over:

• Trigger-based campaigns – How you design automated communications based on cardholder behavior.
• Segmentation and targeting – Your approach to dividing a customer base to deliver personalized, relevant messaging.
• Benefit utilization – Strategies to educate cardholders and encourage them to maximize their perks.
• Advanced concepts –
  • Designing multi-channel engagement campaigns (email, digital, owned channels).
  • Lifecycle journey mapping for premium cobrand products.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk me through a time you designed a lifecycle marketing campaign from scratch. What were the key milestones?"
• "How would you increase the activation rate of a newly issued cobrand credit card within the first 30 days?"
• "Describe your approach to segmenting a diverse customer base for a targeted benefit education campaign."

Data Analytics and Optimization

• As a Project Manager handling a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, your decisions must be grounded in data. We evaluate your ability to analyze engagement, spend, and benefit-usage data.
• A strong candidate will not only know how to pull data but will excel at ensuring dashboards surface clear insights and translating those results into actionable, strategic recommendations.

Be ready to go over:

• Performance tracking – How you monitor campaign success and cardholder behavior.
• A/B testing strategies – Your methodology for continuously optimizing campaigns based on performance data.
• Tool proficiency – Your experience utilizing Excel, Alteryx, and Tableau to navigate complex datasets.
• Advanced concepts –
  • Building predictive models for cardholder churn.
  • Designing executive-level dashboards that clearly articulate engagement performance.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you used data to identify a gap in customer engagement. What actions did you take?"
• "How do you determine which metrics are most important when evaluating the success of a trigger-based campaign?"
• "Describe a situation where the data contradicted your initial strategy. How did you pivot?"

Stakeholder and Partnership Management

• You will serve as a subject matter expert and the central node between Alaska Airlines and Bank of America, as well as internal teams like UX, Operations, and Technology.
• Interviewers want to see how you build consensus, manage competing priorities, and communicate clearly and concisely to both internal and external constituencies without having direct authority over them.

Be ready to go over:

• Cross-functional alignment – Techniques for keeping diverse teams focused on a shared goal.
• External partner management – How you collaborate with large financial institutions or external vendors.
• Executive communication – Your ability to support senior leader updates by clearly articulating opportunities and risks.
• Advanced concepts –
  • Negotiating feature rollouts between internal tech teams and external banking partners.
  • Resolving critical roadblocks in multi-stakeholder environments.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to align internal marketing teams with an external partner's strict compliance requirements."
• "How do you handle pushback from a technology team that says your proposed engagement feature cannot be built on time?"
• "Give an example of how you presented complex program performance data to senior leadership."

Key Responsibilities

As a Project Manager overseeing the Cobrand Program, your day-to-day work is dynamic and highly strategic. You will own and execute the cardholder engagement roadmap, which involves planning and launching early-month-on-book communications, intricate lifecycle journeys, and trigger-based campaigns. Your primary deliverable is driving activation, repeat spend, and overall benefit utilization among our Atmos Rewards cardholders.

You will spend a significant portion of your week collaborating cross-functionally. You will partner with Marketing, Loyalty, and Bank of America teams to develop and deploy targeted campaigns across email, digital, and owned channels. Simultaneously, you will work closely with analytics, customer insights, UX, and technology teams to ensure the guest experience is seamless and that cardholders fully understand their benefits.

Data analysis is a continuous responsibility. You will regularly analyze engagement and spend data, ensuring that performance dashboards surface clear insights. You will use this data to define testing strategies, continuously optimize active campaigns, and translate your findings into actionable recommendations. Furthermore, as the subject matter expert on these cobrand products, you will routinely prepare and deliver updates to senior leaders, clearly articulating engagement performance and identifying new opportunities for growth.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be highly competitive for this position, you must bring a blend of strategic marketing experience, analytical rigor, and exceptional communication skills.

• Must-have skills – You must have at least 4 years of experience in loyalty, marketing, strategy, finance, or business development. An advanced analytical background with a proven ability to navigate complex datasets is essential. You must possess strong verbal, written, and listening communication skills to effectively manage both internal teams and external partners.
• Technical proficiency – You are expected to be highly comfortable with data manipulation and visualization. Experience using Excel, Alteryx, and/or Tableau is strongly preferred to independently analyze spend and benefit-usage data.
• Industry knowledge – While airline industry experience is preferred, a robust knowledge of loyalty programs, cobrand credit cards, and partnership structures is highly critical. A genuine passion for aviation and guest experience will set you apart.
• Leadership traits – You must be highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of working independently. You are expected to embody our core values: own safety, do the right thing, be caring and kind, and deliver performance in every project you lead.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How technical is the data analytics portion of the interview? You are not expected to write complex code, but you must demonstrate an advanced analytical mindset. You should be comfortable discussing how you manipulate complex datasets, structure A/B tests, and use tools like Excel, Alteryx, or Tableau to derive actionable insights.

Q: How much knowledge of the airline industry do I need beforehand? While airline industry experience is preferred, it is not strictly mandatory. However, a robust understanding of loyalty programs, cobrand credit cards, and partnership structures is highly expected. You should familiarize yourself with the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and general aviation loyalty trends before interviewing.

Q: What differentiates the most successful candidates in this process? Top candidates seamlessly blend strategic marketing vision with rigorous data analysis. They do not just propose creative engagement campaigns; they back up their ideas with clear segmentation strategies, testing methodologies, and a deep understanding of how to manage external partnerships like Bank of America.

Q: What is the typical timeline from the initial screen to an offer? The process generally takes between 3 to 5 weeks. This allows sufficient time for the recruiter screen, the hiring manager deep-dive, and the scheduling of the cross-functional panel interview with various internal and external stakeholders.

Q: Is this role remote or in-person? This position is based at our Corporate HQ in SeaTac, WA (with salary bands also provided for Honolulu). Candidates should be prepared to discuss their ability to work within the location requirements specified by the hiring team, as cross-functional collaboration is a massive component of this role.

Other General Tips

• Master the STAR Method: When answering behavioral questions, strictly adhere to the Situation, Task, Action, Result framework. Alaska Airlines interviewers look for clear, structured answers that highlight your specific contributions and quantifiable outcomes.
• Know the Atmos Rewards Ecosystem: Do your homework on the Alaska Airlines cobrand credit card offerings. Understand the current value propositions, sign-up bonuses, and ongoing benefits. Bringing specific observations about our current products to the interview shows deep preparation.
• Highlight Cross-Functional Empathy: Because you will be working with Analytics, Tech, UX, and Bank of America, show that you understand the unique pressures each team faces. Use language that demonstrates collaboration rather than dictation.

• Connect to Our Core Values: We take our values seriously. Find natural ways to weave in how you "own safety," "do the right thing," "be caring and kind," and "deliver performance" throughout your past experiences.
• Focus on the "So What?" of Data: When discussing your analytical skills, do not just list the tools you use. Always emphasize how your analysis led to a specific business recommendation or a change in customer behavior.

Summary & Next Steps

Stepping into the Project Manager role for the Cobrand Program at Alaska Airlines is an opportunity to drive one of the most critical revenue and loyalty engines of our business. You will be at the forefront of creating an airline people love, using data, targeted marketing, and strategic partnerships to deliver unparalleled value to our cardholders. The impact you will have on both the guest experience and the company's financial success is immense.

To succeed in your upcoming interviews, focus heavily on your ability to bridge the gap between creative marketing strategy and rigorous data analytics. Be prepared to share detailed stories of how you have managed complex, cross-functional projects, optimized customer lifecycles, and navigated external partnerships. Your ability to communicate clearly and align diverse teams will be your greatest asset during the panel rounds.

The provided salary data reflects the base pay ranges for this role, which vary based on location (e.g., Seattle vs. Honolulu), relevant experience, and skillset. Keep in mind that Alaska Airlines is committed to fair, unbiased compensation, and total rewards also include generous 401k matching, bonus plans, and highly valued stand-by travel privileges.

Approach this process with confidence. You have the strategic background and the analytical skills required to excel. For further preparation, you can explore additional interview insights and resources on Dataford to refine your narrative. We look forward to learning how your passion and expertise will help us achieve excellence each day. Good luck!