What's covered in this blog
In this blog, we look at the realities of employer branding in a hypergrowth business, from choosing focus over doing everything at once to managing a consistent story across global markets and understanding how AI now shapes candidate perceptions before they reach your careers page. For talent acquisition and employer brand teams who want practical lessons on scaling a brand, challenging assumptions, and staying ahead of how LLMs influence the candidate journey.
Claudia Preda joined Braze almost three years ago as the second hire in a brand-new employer brand function. Today, she’s managing the Braze employer brand across fifteen offices, from New York to Singapore to São Paulo, and she's learned lessons about what it really takes to scale it in a hypergrowth environment.
In this conversation, Claudia gets honest about the challenges most employer brand leaders face but don't always talk about, the pressure to do everything at once, the reality of keeping a brand consistent across wildly different markets, and how AI is already shaping what candidates think about your company before they ever visit your careers page.
Why employer brand focus beats doing everything at once
When Claudia started at Braze, she wanted to do it all: events, advertising, social media, talent communities, and content. The full employer brand toolkit.
It's a trap many employer brand leaders fall into, especially in fast-growth companies where there's pressure to support hiring at scale. You're opening in new countries, you've got hundreds of roles to fill, and suddenly you're trying to be everywhere.
But Claudia is learning that focus beats breadth every time.
"It's better to do three things brilliantly than ten things halfway. Focus gives you credibility and results. There are a lot of things that you can do that are pretty turnkey, like storytelling is a very good example that automatically gets left behind when those should be the baseline, and I know I’ve fallen into that trap before. It’s not easy, especially when you’re passionate about your job and you want to be able to do everything."
If you're building or scaling an employer brand function, Claudia's advice is clear: start with going deep on a few things rather than spreading yourself thin. You'll build more credibility with stakeholders, and you may actually see results faster.
How to manage employer brand across global markets
Managing employer brand across the globe taught Claudia something crucial, what works in one market might not work in another.
"What resonates in London might not in Jakarta or Sydney. Localisation isn't about translation, it's about interpretation."
She saw this clearly when, just recently, Braze ran brand health studies across different countries. They asked people about benefits, messaging, and what they valued in an employer. The results showed that while people may value similar things, the intensity and priority order varied massively by location.
"It was more verifying, but sometimes you make assumptions based on your own biases. I'm based in the UK. I may really value something and then I look at the data and I see, yeah, it is on there, but not as prominently as I thought – or not at all!"
The challenge for small employer brand teams is that you can't have someone in every market. So Claudia is working with a network of local collaborators, recruiters, general managers, Employee Resource Groups, and cultural ambassadors — who help her understand what actually matters on the ground.
"You have to rely on local people and really try to get from people on the ground level what their honest thoughts are, what works and what doesn't."
If you're managing employer brand across multiple markets, the lesson is clear: don't assume. Ask. And build relationships with people who can tell you what's actually resonating versus what you think should resonate.
How AI is changing employer branding
When Claudia talks about the future of employer brand, she doesn't focus on using AI to write social posts or generate content faster. She's thinking about something bigger: AI is already shaping what candidates think about your company before they ever reach your careers page.
"People already ask ChatGPT or Gemini, 'Should I work at this company?' That means AI is influencing decisions before candidates even reach your careers site."
She's seen it in the data. ChatGPT and Gemini show up as traffic sources on Braze's careers website. People may be asking AI whether they should accept a job offer or what the top marketing tech companies in New York are.
To understand what AI was saying about Braze, Claudia ran an experiment. She generated an AI podcast where two fake hosts discussed whether Braze was a good place to work.
"It was so cool to hear these two voices that don't exist actually discuss Braze. And to see what AI actually pulls up, because then you actually have a good idea if the digital story of your company is there at all or not."
The reality is that AI has become a mediator between candidates and your company. They might ask an LLM for advice instead of visiting your website. And if AI is pulling the wrong information or if your digital footprint is weak, candidates might never get the real story.
Claudia calls this the new level of employer brand SEO. It's not just about ranking on Google anymore, it's about understanding what AI systems know about you and making sure that story is accurate.
Her advice? Start by putting yourself in the shoes of a candidate. Ask ChatGPT if your company is a good place to work. See what comes up. And continue the conversation from there, going deeper with your prompts. Find out what AI knows about your culture, benefits, and values. And, if you have the resources, try to look into tools that help you actually gauge the visibility of your brand on LLMs, what the sentiment actually is, and how you can optimise your Go-To-Market approach accordingly.
"You have to think about that story. It's the same thing we've always talked about, consistently telling the same story. It's the new level of SEO."
Key lessons for employer brand leaders
Claudia’s experience at Braze is a reminder that employer branding isn’t a campaign, it’s a constant act of translation, interpretation, and iteration. Building a brand that can scale globally means accepting that there’s no final version; it will keep evolving as the business, people, and world around it change.
The most important skill for any employer brand leader isn’t creativity or even strategy — it’s curiosity. The ability to ask, listen, and adapt.
"You have to accept that what worked last year might not work now. Companies evolve fast, especially in tech. If your EVP doesn’t evolve with you, it stops being true, and that’s something I’ve learnt firsthand."
Her advice applies far beyond Braze. Whether you’re building from scratch or rethinking your strategy in a global business, the same principles hold:
Be strategic with your content
Ask questions before making assumptions
Own your story, before AI does it for you
Employer branding has never been about logos or taglines. It’s about strategy, storytelling, and showing up with purpose.
