Angela Riggs (she/her)

“I was Angela's recruiter when we were hiring for QE Managers, and after talking with her, I knew we'd found the right person. Angela is an incredibly empathetic people manager who is committed to her teams' upward growth and mobility. She's knowledgable and passionate about equity and inclusion and is always coming up with suggestions and strategies for how we could improve our practices to be more equitable. She's thoughtful, strategic, and a force to be reckoned with! Can't wait to see where Angela goes next.”

“Angela is a great people manager who is very empathetic of her team, peers, and colleagues. During our time at The Zebra, she consistently pushed herself to improve her skills, the department, and processes. She asked tough questions at all levels of the company and was persistent in getting them answered. Wherever Angela goes, I'm confident that she will end up making a big impact and the department and company will be better for it!”

“Angela is incredibly committed to the success of her people and all those around her. She advocates for her team's growth and development, but also for department-wide initiatives. She has a very high degree of empathy, especially for candidates in the interview process. Angela asks great questions that will keep leadership honest to their commitments, which we all need more of.”

“Angela is a tremendous partner to development and cross-disciplinary teams, and a force for positive broader institutional change. Angela and I worked together on multiple projects -- she as QA manager, myself as tech lead. From her first day at Instrument, she worked to discover tech needs and processes and to establish QA standards that integrated with team and project structures and that supported the flexible, fast-paced work being done across the studio. She set QA schedules that integrated with project timelines and release pipelines, emphasizing iterative QA models to validate functionality on a per-feature basis. Getting QA closer to development and tightening that loop was a boon to development processes and project stability. I also had the joy of collaborating with Angela from a technical leadership perspective. She constantly leveraged her advocacy and organizational design skills for the greater good. She was the driving force behind a revamped career ladder; she constantly pushed technical leadership to better support individuals in the discipline and at Instrument as a whole. In my time with Angela I consistently saw her prioritize truth, support, and equity over preserving ego and status. She was always working to create safe, honest environments that give everyone and the organization a chance to excel. She is highly open to learning and discussion, and brings out these traits in others. I am lucky that I was able to work with Angela in these different capacities, and I am really excited for everyone else who will get to do the same!”

“I very much enjoyed my experience working with Angela. I worked with her and the QA team she created and led on several projects. Angela and her team always did great work, were a pleasure to work with, and the approaches she recommended for integrating QA into a project led to better results than approaches we had used in the past. Angela was always unafraid to ask hard questions and shine a light into dark corners, especially in support of those less privileged than herself -- a quality which I greatly admire. She is someone who gets things done not just at the project level, but also at the organizational level. If you're looking for a strong, empathetic leader with great QA expertise, look no further.”

“I had the pleasure of working with Angela while at Instrument. Any project she was included on instantly became better. She built the QA discipline from the ground-up. The dev discipline benefitted immensely from having an internal QA team led by such a thoughtful, detail-oriented, and thorough person like Angela. Angela is not only an excellent QA engineer and manager, but also an amazing colleague who strives to create an inclusive work environment for everyone. ”

“Angela was absolutely wonderful to work with. I worked with Angela when my projects had development needs, which required QA. Angela was well communicative, asked plenty of questions during project briefing and hit all required deadlines needed. The QA she provided was executed with high level of detail. Angela was very flexible with teams, mindful of project blockers and client requests. Angela is a ray of sunshine and provided empathy and support that team members really needed during rough times.”

“Angela held a unique and irreplaceable role at Instrument. This was my second time working with her, separated by just a few years, and it was immediately evident to me that Angela had advanced leaps and bounds in her career. She was always incredibly talented and accountable, but she had turned into a true leader and mentor. At Instrument, she helped to mature a development practice that was always right on the cusp of being great by defining and championing quality (something we had classically outsourced). She was unwavering and undaunted when confronting organizational hurdles, and fundamentally changed the way Instrument plans, resources, budgets, and runs development projects. Angela played another critical role at Instrument, which was to be a voice of accountability and allyship for our BIPOC employees. This has been an area of passion for Angela for a long time, and she used her empathy, curiosity, and fearlessness to fight for the less privileged every single day. I unequivocally endorse Angela. If you want a natural born leader, an endlessly curious and authentic human, a selfless ally for the people that need her most, and a best-in-class quality advocate, look no further.”

“Angela is always wonderful to work with. She embedded with our project teams and brought keen attention to detail in the QA process. Angela is an excellent resource when writing technical documentation, determining browser support requirements, and accessibility standards. Would love to work together again someday!”

“I worked with Angela on a number of projects at Instrument and have been consistently impressed by the way she shows up both at the organizational and project levels. Angela helped to start the QA practice at Instrument which started to come to life on a large project I was helping to lead. She came in with an open mind as well as a point-of-view -- this made it so that she was empathetic to our current processes but observed how her expertise could influence the work and make it better. She integrated seamlessly with our team and was collaborative and communicative. I worked with her on several other projects where her presence, hard work, and smart thinking helped us deliver a better client deliverable and user experience. Without a doubt, Angela created a sophisticated and trusted QA process at Instrument that didn't exist before she joined. She'd be a meaningful and effective part of any organization that is lucky enough to have her. ”

“Angela is not only an advocate for Quality, but an advocate for her peers and team. She helps provide a voice for those who need it all while seamlessly managing a team. Her knowledge of Web Accessibility and QA practices go deep. She laid the groundwork for building the QA Discipline at Instrument and I'm envious of the next team or company that has the privilege of putting her skills to use. ”

“Angela brings a steady and thoughtful approach to QA services that not only accounts for the needs of the project but also the people involved. Working with Angela has been very rewarding both professionally and personally. I always appreciated the level of detail she brings and probing questions she asks about a project in setting it up for successful QA and ensuring our delivery will be smooth and stable. Her ability to understand the technical aspects of a development project along with the business needs makes sure that the right QA process is always implemented and greatly increased our level of delivery across multiple projects. Angela is a fantastic addition to any organization that values quality delivery, concern for people, and great management/leadership skills.”

“Angela is one of the most professional and empathetic individuals I've had the opportunity to work with in the tech space. She's constantly working to help developers around her ship quality, production-ready code and never shies away from an opportunity to educate or mentor someone still learning the ropes. Angela is also a stellar advocate for ethics and quality best practices in the engineering space, both directly and positively influencing the culture of the teams around her.”

“Angela is by far one of the most skilled QA engineers I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Far beyond just being adept at testing and release engineering, Angela excels at change management, incident response management (having served as incident commander on a number of high-profile incidents during her tenure at Vacasa), documentation, and policy management. She consistently achieves results not only through her own productivity but by lifting others up and empowering those around her. Her approach to work ensures quality not just in code but in process and approach as well.”

“Angela is one of the most dedicated, driven and enthusiastic people I have worked with. She is highly communitive and quickly becomes one of your best allies when you both are on the same project or team. She is always the first one to answer questions on Slack or to have that pesky line of code ready to fix your dev environment. As a QA engineer, she doesn't let anything slip. She is relentless in helping make whatever she is working on better. Her feedback is structured, clear and well documented. Angela is an asset to any company or team as a QA Engineer and as a person. ”

“Angela is one of the most impressive people I have had the privilege and opportunity to work with in my career. Angela is well liked and respected by everyone who interacts with her. She possesses strong interpersonal and technical skills as well as a high level of dedication to ensuring quality and a high standard of software development practices. I have had the privilege of watching Angela grow from a Developer Intern to a QA Engineer and not only grow into the role but set the pace, standards and vision for what QA looks like in the organization. From creating test automation to playing a crucial role in the implantation of CI/CD and code coverage testing, she has been involved end to end across the board and has had a hand in creating the well oiled machine that is QA and validation testing at Metal Toad. Beyond the technical skills she also has a strong sense of ethics and values and works to make sure that all voices are heard and that everyone she works with feels heard and included. Angela is sure to make a lasting and positive impact on any team and organization she works with! ”

“Because of Angela, I know what it is like to have a great QA Engineer on your team. At every stage of the project, Angela makes sure it meets the high quality standards. From Visual Regression, Performance, and Exploratory testing to User Experience, and Accessibility recommendations, Angela is an expert in all forms of quality assurance. Many of the quality assurance tools and processes we used at Metal Toad were either introduced and implemented, or improved and automated by Angela. Not only was Angela the sole QA Engineer on our team, forcing her to juggle dozens of projects at a time, she found the time to help improve our process as a team. Angela is the first person I reach out to when I need the expertise of a QA Engineer.”

“The definition of excellence in QA engineering and leadership, Angela has a curious mind that's willing to tackle anything to improve the quality of our digital products delivered to the clients. She is thorough and accurate with acceptance testing, catching blindspots in the engineering early in the process. Angela is a key member of the team providing scrum-master leadership, continuous integration implementation, and takes on stopgap tasks of various roles on top of her QA responsibilities. She is hardworking and superb at context-switching, even assists other teams on their QA for active projects. An amazing person to work with, her laughter brings life to the office.”

“Angela is a treasure. I've watched her grow from development intern to QA engineer and have never stopped being amazed at her dedication and persistence. She cares deeply about craft and is fearless in pushing back when she knows we're not living up to our own standards. She's been truly innovative and excellent in a role that a lesser engineer might find unrewarding. On top of her raw skill and passion, Angela has a heart unlike anyone I've ever worked with. She laughs easily and brings joy with her every day. I unequivocally recommend Angela. Thoughtful, hardworking, and kind is a rare combination that no employer should pass up.”

“Angela brings joy, intelligence, and laughter to Metal Toad. She is a community builder and cultural leader. Technologically, she constructs process out of the nebulous and ensures that Metal Toad’s products are fully functional upon launch. Her power blogging helps to inform our tech, sales, and marketing teams of her rigorous commitment to code quality. Angela is an asset to any organization that is smart enough to hire her.”

“Angela was key on the projects we shared. She excelled at wearing all the hats, all the time. From diving into the code, detailing our documentation, QA'ing, etc. From development environments to deploying live, she was reliable and vital to our success. She's also really great at organizing events and brings a ton of positivity to the work culture.”

“Angela is a self starter with an amazing can-do attitude. As her Development Team Lead at Metal Toad, I had pleasure of working with Angela on several projects over a period of 4 months. Her ability to learn new things is impressive and I felt very comfortable delegating any and all tasks and having her run with it. She is proficient with AngularJS and Drupal and comfortable with Capistrano deployment tools as well as proper git flow. On top of her development chops, Angela is very personable with a big smile and lots of positive energy.”

“Angela is the kind of person that makes a team better by simply being around. Her energy is uplifting and her enthusiasm is contagious. Relentlessly determined, she goes above and beyond to deliver on her commitments and stand up for her ideals. She's kind-hearted, driven, fun, and an undeniable asset to her team and her people.”

“Angela is one of a kind. Truly. Her diverse skill sets coupled with a passion for learning has made her a great fit at Metal Toad. We are growing company where each individual is asked to wear many hats and follow through and she does this with grace and joy. She is a quick study and infuses every team she's on with energy and efficiency. Any organization would be lucky to have her!”