Donna Rawson is the Head of Talent Acquisition at Etihad Airways, where she leads a global recruitment organisation of more than 30 specialists and has driven a major transformation in the airline’s talent strategy and operating model. With a career spanning aviation, financial services and global insurance markets across the Middle East, Europe, APAC and Australia, Donna is known for building high-performing, insight-led recruitment functions that act as strategic partners to the business.
Donna has a particular passion for using technology, data and market intelligence to shift talent acquisition from reactive fulfilment to proactive, predictive workforce capability. At Etihad, she has introduced AI-powered sourcing, modernised assessment methods and led the scoping of the airline’s next-generation talent acquisition system.
She is especially energised by improving the experience – for candidates, hiring managers and recruiters – and creating a function that is both operationally efficient and brand-strengthening. Her work also includes building sustainable direct sourcing strategies, developing market-ready talent communities and elevating employer brand positioning in highly competitive global talent markets.
What’s a recent professional achievement of yours that you are proud of?
The transformation of Etihad Talent Acquisition into a fit for purpose, strategic, data-driven and tech-enabled ‘next generation’ function, better enabled by technology (recent introduction of HireVue and mid-implementation of Smart Recruiters)
What is your prediction for the future of the TA industry?
AI will continue to revolutionise the space. My hope is that the automation of repetitive and administrative tasks will free recruiters up to focus more on candidate engagement and talent/market insights. I strongly believe the role of the recruiter will change fundamentally over the next 5 years where AI will dominate the front end of the process (attraction, sourcing, screening) and the success of TA will be driven by expert prompt engineering and agentic AI orchestration.
What projects are you planning on working on in 2026?
Continuing our journey with the implementation of Smart Recruiters and the activation of our EVP and employer brand. It will be a period of adoption and consolidation for our team with many new tech advancements having been introduced in 2025 and in the first half of 2026.