Humans of Helix: Rachel Garcia

Meet Rachel Garcia

Senior Project Manager

As the youngest child and only daughter in her family, Rachel Garcia spent a significant amount of time at the baseball fields in her hometown of Des Moines, Iowa, watching her two older brothers play. But Rachel did more than just cheer on her big brothers; she got her first unofficial job working at the baseball field concession stand when she was only nine years old.?

Rachel credits her dad for helping her become who she is today. “He really instilled a strong work ethic in me from a young age and really molded me into who I am.” In fact, he helped Rachel land her first official job by driving her around town to collect job applications on her 14th birthday. Rachel’s father still influences her day-to-day life, although he passed away close to 10 years ago. She often views a situation through her father’s mindset, imagining how he would handle it. She often asks herself, “What can I do to make sure that I’m making him proud?”??

When Rachel set out for college, she never imagined she would end up working in the fintech industry. In fact, she set out to be a public servant, studying social work at the University of Iowa. She returned to her hometown of Des Moines to complete a degree in Social Work from Grandview University when her father became ill. While attending Grandview, she took on a part-time job as a bank teller. ?

That teller job led her to a full-fledged career in Financial Services. When Rachel completed her degree, she worked her way up from teller to an assistant customer service manager, then customer service manager and assistant branch manager before moving into a control and governance role. After 10 years at the bank, Rachel decided to join Helix by Q2, where she is a senior project manager for the Implementations team. ?

Rachel describes herself as “someone who likes to be challenged,” which has benefited her at Helix. “One of the things that I like best about my role is how things are always changing,” Rachel explained. “None of our projects are ever the same, so we are constantly strategizing and coming up with new approaches.” Rachel advises those just beginning their careers at Helix to, “dive in, get your feet wet, and get to know people.” With the supportive and helpful Helix team, new team members will always be able to help as they learn and grow in their careers. ?

As a senior project manager at Helix, Rachel's role focuses on helping implement a new bank of records (BOR), onboarding new clients and ensuring they are trained and ready to partner with them. In addition to onboarding, Rachel helps implement new features for existing clients, which helps increase what clients can offer within their app. A formal BOR implementation focused on training helps streamline the client implementation process and ensures that Helix establishes a good baseline and continued partnership with clients.

Rachel lives in Des Moines with her husband and three young boys, aged six, five and two. She loves to garden, growing (and canning) a variety of vegetables. Like most moms, Rachel's life can be hectic, driving her boys to baseball, flag football and soccer. Now, when Rachel attends her sons' sports activities, she's more focused on being their cheerleader and mom, leaving no time to work at the concession stand.??