Faces of the Force: Evangelina Tillyros
By Cheryl Marino
Article published on: April 1, 2024 in the Spring 2024 AL&T Edition
Read Time: < 7 mins
COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: Project Director Joint Services, Joint Program
Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition
TITLE: Acquisition manager
ACQUISITION CAREER FIELD: Contracting
YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 13
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: DOD contracting professional
EDUCATION: B.S. in business management with a concentration in finance,
Monmouth University
AWARDS: 2020 Gold Eagle Award for Contracting Excellence; Secretary of
the Army Exceptional Support of AbilityOne Program award (2017); Civilian Service Achievement Medal (2015)
Never Stop Asking Questions
Learning a new job is challenging, especially in the field of contracting—with a lot of new information to take
in and process in a short amount of time. Much of what’s learned is applied gradually, but it takes years of
practice to achieve proficiency. After more than a decade in the field, Evangelina Tillyros can finally say she
is completely comfortable navigating all the processes and finding solutions to complex contracting issues.
“A close friend of mine worked for the Army and often expressed how contracting was the most complex and
sometimes painful aspect interfacing his job,” she said. “I couldn’t be more intrigued that my friend, who I
think of as a genius, found a career field ‘complex.’ ” She then applied for a contract specialist position at
Army Contracting Command – New Jersey (ACC-NJ) at Picatinny Arsenal and joined the Army Acquisition Workforce in
May 2010. “I didn’t agree [with my friend] about the pain, but it was much more difficult than I thought,” she
said. “Once I started getting a feel for how to navigate through policy, I was hooked.”
As acquisition manager for the Project Director Joint Services (PD JS) Business Division within the Joint Program
Executive Office for Armaments and Ammunition (JPEO A&A), Tillyros is responsible for directing, developing
and controlling the acquisition activities for a portfolio of over 150 active projects valued at $3 billion in
fiscal year 2023, and an estimated $6 billion in programming activities through fiscal year 2028.
She also manages a team of four acquisition analysts, along with specialists deployed within multiple PD JS
integrated teams, and ensures that they achieve the highest degree of effectiveness and efficiency for PD JS
contracts. This, she said, enables the office to meet cost, schedule and performance goals in support of JPEO
A&A as the single manager for conventional ammunition.
“I love that my work contributes to the sustainment and success of the AAPs [Army ammunition plants],” she said.
“To me, it doesn’t get more critical than that. My greatest satisfaction in being part of the Army Acquisition
Workforce is that there are endless opportunities to grow and learn.”
Tillyros said JPEO A&A offers a variety of lunch and learn training sessions that can be accessed at any
time. “As our world changes, the laws and practices applied to federal contracting have to keep up. We are not
in danger of running out of new things to learn anytime soon.”
“People think I have the coolest job, and I do! I get to visit Army ammunition plants to see our projects in
development and in completion,” she said. “It’s one thing to prepare documents discussing why a new acid
facility is needed, but the experience becomes meaningful when you step inside a particular facility to
experience actual conditions workers use to operate within. At Project Director Joint Services, we are blessed
with the task to make those AAPs better. Better is safer for workers and much more efficient. I am genuinely so
proud of the work my team executes at PD JS.”
HANDS ON EXPERIENCE
Tillyros firing an M72 LAW Shoulder Launched Munition at Nammo
Defense Systems in Mesa, Arizona, in October 2015. She said the experience becomes more meaningful when you
can see firsthand how the product is developed and learn how it works. (Photo courtesy of Evangelina
Tillyros)
Tillyros visited the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant this year to watch the load, assembly and packing process for the
ammunition projectiles. “It was an incredible experience to travel the assembly line along with the ammo as it
is filled with explosives and on to the next step,” she said.
An early and important point in her career was when she was asked to mentor someone for the first time on how to
prepare and execute an undefinitized contract action for the LightGuard Mercury System (a threat-detection
system). “The challenge was that I had to teach someone a contracting procedure I wasn’t educated on, either. I
didn’t want to fail my team by saying I couldn’t do it, so I set out to gather as much research as I could to
make sense of it to myself and to my mentee.” According to Tillyros, that mentee shaped how she trains people
even to this day.
“They had a lot of questions as to why we would do things a certain way, so we looked up every question together
and wrote down the references to back up our procedures.” Tillyros said it was a great experience for both her
and her mentee because she learned procedures for contracting all over again in a more thorough way by having to
teach it to someone else. “My specialists would ask, ‘How do you know all of this?’ The answer was always the
same, never stop asking questions and never stop seeking to understand.”
Training is another way Tillyros has been able to learn more by asking questions. She recently completed the Lean
Six Sigma Green Belt Class and the Civilian Education System (CES) Advanced Part 1 training and describes CES as
phenomenal because it discussed different types of teaming methods and management approaches. “Some I was aware
of and others not as much,” she said. “I highly recommend it to everyone because the approaches discussed are
relevant for all levels of the career ladder.”
She believes that in management, the road to success is not just the hands-on experience and training, it’s the
ability to “put your people first.” Having been a team lead in multiple organizations, she understands the value
of having a cohesive team that is comfortable together and asking questions of each other. “We all have
questions, but we need to feel safe asking them,” she said. As a team lead, Tillyros’s primary responsibility is
to support her team by encouraging them along their “roads to success.”
“My responsibility is to ensure my team can execute their work in the most efficient way possible,” she said. “To
do this I provide dedicated training for tasks to be performed, on the tools we utilize, and to help them when
they are stuck with a problem.”
Also, she said, as a team “we don’t resonate with what went wrong or where to place blame, we focus only on the
solution. When my team is successful it leads to organizational success. Being able to motivate and develop the
people we are blessed to lead is a great privilege.”
Tillyros said both in and outside of work she is known to be a perfectionist who goes overboard with small
projects for fun like cooking, gardening or home remodeling. “I once was so determined to make croissants from
scratch, I went through 10 pounds of butter before I got it right,” she said. “The commonality with my work is
similar, I won’t give up until I get the result I am satisfied with.”
—CHERYL MARINO