Tech Vets: Angie Parker flew with an Air Force radar squadron — now she tracks startups and fellow vets

Editor’s note: “Tech Vets: Profiles in Leadership and Innovation,” is a GeekWire series showcasing U.S. military veterans leading companies within the Pacific Northwest tech industry. The series explores how military experience fosters leadership, resilience, and innovation in tech.

As an airborne radar technician in the United States Air Force, Angie Parker gained skills and confidence that she carried with her into her professional career, including as executive director of Alliance of Angels, the Seattle-based investment group.

“There’s a sense of accomplishment, and a can-do attitude that I think lends itself well to learn tech,” Parker said.

As a young person growing up on the Space Coast of Central Florida, Parker didn’t have grand plans to be a veterinarian or a lawyer or doctor. There was a long line of military service in her large family, from her parents (Army) and brother (Navy) to her uncle (Air Force).

“It was a good option for me not knowing what to do with my life,” Parker said. “I didn’t have college as an example in my family, and I didn’t want to be stuck in a small town doing nothing.”

Parker, who served from 2002 to 2006, did her basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Thanks to her uncle’s tips on the electronics portion of her entrance test, she scored above average and had a broader pick of jobs to pursue.

“I inadvertently chose the longest tech school of any enlisted Air Force job,” Parker said of her choice to be a radar tech aboard an AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) plane. “I had to learn radar and computer systems with no background in that whatsoever.”

Parker served with the Air Force’s 965th Squadron at the time of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, but she was not deployed. She did counter-drug operations and missions in the continental U.S., and other than the female instructor in her training squadron, she knew of no other woman who was a radar tech at the time.

Because she was airborne, Parker also went through SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) training, and she had top secret clearance. She eventually rose to the rank of senior airman and was awarded the Airman of the Year Award for the 965th Squadron, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

“I had a really cool job, and I got to wear a flight suit to work every day,” Parker said. “I earned it for sure.”

Coming out of what is often considered the techiest of the military branches — the Air Force handles many cybersecurity and space-related functions, for instance — Parker felt a keen sense or preparedness. She cited the military’s support system and academic structure.

“That gave me the ability to go, ‘I can learn anything if given the chance and given the opportunity to comfortably learn a skill,'” she said. “When I got out, it gave me this sense, ‘Oh, it’s technical? That’s OK. I’ll learn it, I’m not afraid of it.’ It removed barriers for me when I was at a job.”

Parker, who graduated from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business and has past experience with a number of Seattle-area startups, has been leading Alliance of Angels since February. The organization is known for its network of more than 180 angel investors who review more than 150 deals annually and make individual investment decisions in up-and-coming tech startups based across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

“The excitement of running startups — learning and solving hard problems almost every day — is almost as exciting as being an aviator in the USAF,” she previously told GeekWire. “And now that I’ve well and truly proved I can run a startup, I wanted to move into the funding side to continue learning and helping founders.”

She’s learned that traits picked up in the military translate well into being a leader in the civilian and business world. And while some believe the rapid rise of artificial intelligence is coming for entry level tech jobs, Parker believes the military in particular trains people for what’s next as it relates to AI.

“I think, being a military member, you are trained in how to communicate effectively,” she said. “AI will remove the ‘need for speed,’ if you will, and replace it with clarity and great communication. And I think military members are great at doing exactly that.”

Parker struggled a bit with her own transition out of the Air Force. She felt like her work and life lacked a sense of purpose that the military provided.

“I don’t know where in the world, in what instance you put a 20-year-old in charge of hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment and dozens of lives,” she said. “Where in the world do you get that experience? Getting out, I was like, ‘I just sit at a desk all day? This is what my life is now? I don’t feel important. I don’t feel like I’m tip of the spear.'”

Now she’s a big advocate for helping other military veterans, with a passion at the veteran-entrepreneur intersection. Her next Veteran Founders & Funders event is June 9 in Bellevue, Wash. She’s also volunteered with Special Operators Transition Foundation (SOTF), which assists Special Forces, Rangers and other elite military members through their transition into civilian life. 

“Veteran employees I’ve had, they’re just a step above,” Parker said. “There’s a sense of focus and passion and they’re just willing to get the job done and do it well.”