Rios worked beginning in her freshman year of high school at the office headquarters for the Alameda County Library System.

[14] Currently Rios is a board member for blockchain start-up Ripple, CEO of real estate investment consulting firm Red River Associates and investor on online reality show “Unicorn Hunters” alongside co-stars Steve Wozniak and Lance Bass.

While at Red River, she teamed with the Assistant General Manager of Infrastructure to restructure the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in preparation for the seismic retrofit of the Hetch Hetchy water system, one of the nation's largest capital improvement programs.

Many have said that this was a key tipping point necessary for the victory of then-Senator Barack Obama to win the democratic vote for the first time since 1964 in his campaign to become the President of the United States.

Rios was also a part of the team that implemented the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with an emphasis on the Build America Bonds (BAB) program.

Rios convened and trained state and local government officials and other stakeholders on how to access and utilize Build America Bonds to fund major infrastructure projects during the economic recovery.

Rios was the first Treasurer to have her portfolio which also included the Chair of the Advanced Counterfeiting Deterrence Steering Committee and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury in the areas of community development and public engagement.

[19] Her almost eight-year effort to redesign the nation's currency included the first-ever nationwide public engagement process in the history of the federal government using a social media portal, roundtables and town halls.

[21] Rios was the longest serving Senate-confirmed Treasury official beginning with her time on the Treasury/Federal Reserve Transition Team in November 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.

[19] After the end of her tenure at Treasury, Rios launched an organization called Empowerment 2020 at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, where she was working as a visiting scholar.