Angel Banks

Angel Banks

Senior Developer Programs & Community Leader · AI · Education · Events

Atlanta, GA · angel@angelbanks.com · linkedin.com/in/angelmbanks · angelbanks.com

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Summary

Senior program manager with 10+ years building and scaling developer communities, education programs, and global events. At Microsoft, program-managed a single technical track within the global AI Tour (70+ international stops), led GTM for Awesome Copilot (40K+ daily developers, +267% growth), and drove DevRel AI samples reach from 493K to 1.49M+ unique visitors per quarter as OKR owner. Co-founded REFACTR.TECH, growing a 1,500+ member learning ecosystem and producing four multi-day developer conferences with 1,300+ attendees and 57+ sponsors. Bring product and design rigor to community work — I build the operating systems that let advocates, instructors, and partners do their best work.

Skills & Tools

Skills: Developer Programs & Community · Global Event Operations & Production · Developer Education Strategy · Run-of-Show & Content Programming · Cross-Functional Program Leadership · Sponsorship & Partner Management · Community Lifecycle Systems (Onboarding, Activation, Retention) · Operating Models & OKRs · Performance Metrics & Reporting · AI Platform Adoption · Product & GTM Alignment · Vendor Management & Budget Ownership

Tools: Asana · Jira · Notion · Airtable · Figma · Splash · Eventbrite · Luma · Meetup · GitHub · Power BI · ChatGPT · Claude

Experience

Senior Program Manager — Microsoft (.NET Advocacy) · 2020 – 2026

  • Program-managed a single technical track of Microsoft's AI Tour across 70+ international stops; contributed to tour-wide outcomes of 126K+ registrants (8% above target), 86K+ attendees (39% above, 68% conversion), 16M+ social impressions, and 229 featured partners delivering 117% YoY revenue growth.
  • Led GTM strategy and program management for Awesome Copilot, scaling the GitHub-native AI customization hub from launch to 40K+ avg daily developer visits (+267%), peaking at 62K daily and 12.9K unique developers; authored the Learning Hub GTM strategy and IA.
  • Owned DevRel OKR 2.1 (AI Samples Reach) end-to-end — documentation, vendor coordination, governance, and quarterly targets — expanding reach from ~493K to 1.49M+ unique visitors per quarter (3× growth), exceeding Q1/Q2 targets by 49–100%.
  • Solo program-managed Microsoft's global virtual .NET Day on Agentic Modernization end-to-end (planning, speaker readiness, live production, GTM): 1,902 registrations (190% of goal), 3,807 live views (333%), and 7,604 30-day on-demand views (101%).
  • Co-led Hack Together, Microsoft's 15-day GitHub + YouTube hackathon program; flagship .NET 8 hack drove 16.8K landing-page views, 1.2K registrations, 67 submissions, and 4.8K live + 32K on-demand viewers — tying community engagement directly to product adoption.
  • Led DevRel program execution for .NET + AI experiences at Microsoft Build (2,000+ Ask-the-Expert interactions — the most engaged zone at Build 2025; 900+ lab/session attendees) and .NET Conf (95K live, 405K on-demand, 104K .NET downloads, 100+ community viewing events).
  • Lead PM for AI Hack & Tell, Microsoft's org-wide internal AI showcase — designed program structure, prize tiers, and submission workflow; drove monthly comms and town-hall updates to evangelize across DevRel; mined submissions to feed downstream PM workstreams. 62 submissions across 10 of 15 DevRel teams.
  • Authored foundational DevRel operating artifacts: CAPM Onboarding Deck (PM onboarding standard), Cloud Advocacy Walking Deck Template (org-wide planning model), and Advocacy Playbooks (sync/async content, Hack Together, product feedback).

Co-Founder — REFACTR.TECH · 2018 – Present

  • Co-founded and scaled REFACTR.TECH into a multi-channel developer learning ecosystem — a multi-day conference series (2019, 2021–2023, preceded by WE RISE 2017–2018), recurring meetups, workshops, and a YouTube channel — sustaining 1,500+ community members across 49 meetups generating 1,583 RSVPs at ~40% attendance rates.
  • Solely owned sponsorships across all programs, generating six-figure sponsorship revenue in peak program years across 57+ sponsors; partnered with two co-founders on conference programming, speaker curation, vendor selection, and on-site production for 1,367+ total attendees.
  • Independently owned brand identity, website content and design, social/marketing, Discord community management (313+ members), and newsletter (678 subscribers) — building the visual system, narrative, and engagement loops sustaining developer retention between programs.
  • Drove the founding team's operating cadence — setting agendas, running weekly standups, and tracking task completion across CFP, sponsorship, production, and post-event workstreams.
  • Curated and coordinated a distributed instructor and speaker network across live events, community sessions, and digital resources.

Product Manager / Sr. Product Designer — First Data (Fiserv) · 2016 – 2019

  • Promoted from Sr. Product Designer (2016–2018) to Product Manager (2018–2019); led cross-functional modernization of enterprise fintech payment platforms across engineering, design, and business stakeholders in a regulated environment.
  • Drove UX research, scalable design system strategy, and product roadmap execution across complex transactional workflows, improving usability and operational efficiency.
  • Coordinated client migration to a modernized payments platform, aligning internal stakeholders and external partners to ensure operational continuity and successful feature adoption.

Director of Operations — Cutting Edge Counsel · 2011 – 2014

  • Directed operations across a multi-entity organization (law firm, consulting practice, and nonprofit), overseeing cross-functional teams, financial management, HR, and strategic planning.
  • Built and led a team of 3 direct reports and 10+ contractor attorneys and consultants; designed and launched new client-facing programs including bootcamps, workshops, and conferences.
  • Coordinated end-to-end execution of a Direct Public Offering (DPO) capital raise targeting $500K–$3M, aligning legal, financial, and stakeholder workflows; led organizational rebrand and digital presence transformation.

Community Leadership

  • Director (Volunteer), Women Who Code Atlanta (2016 – 2024) — scaled chapter to 5K+ members; designed and delivered 275+ developer education programs across cloud, AI, product, and modern engineering practices.
  • Organizer, Google Developers Group Atlanta (2018 – 2021) — co-organized DevFest Atlanta and recurring GDG technical programming.
  • Ambassador, Women Techmakers Atlanta (2018 – 2021)
  • Curriculum Director & UX Instructor, Girl Develop It Atlanta (2017 – 2018)
  • Co-Organizer, ATL Angular (2015 – 2016)

Selected Speaking

  • "When Developer Must Become Designer" — DevNexus 2018; All Things Open 2017; Revolution Conf 2017.
  • "Creating the Most Diverse and Inclusive Conference: Lessons from WE RISE" — DevRel Summit (Seattle) 2017; DevFest Atlanta 2017.
  • "Best Practices for Leveraging UX in an Agile Enterprise Process" — DevOpsDays Atlanta 2017; JazzCon.Tech (New Orleans) 2017.
  • Podcast guest — The UX Hustle Podcast (2020), Code Prep Podcast (2018). Full speaking history at angelbanks.com/featured.

Education & Training

  • General Assembly — Web Development Immersive (12-week program)
  • San Francisco State University — Coursework, Business Administration
  • University of Redlands — Undergraduate coursework