Inside Illumio: Evangeline De Guzman

Inside Illumio is a monthly series that highlights the exceptional individuals behind Illumio's world-class products. Each post will peek behind the scenes to spotlight a member of our team. Come get to know us a little better and learn more about what makes Illumio's culture so unique.

This month, meet Evangeline De Guzman, Director of Product Management Operations at Illumio. Read about what made her excited about working at Illumio, why she sees leveraging differences as key to Illumio’s success, and all the places she and her husband have travelled to.  

Tell us about yourself. What do you do at Illumio?

I’m the Director of Product Management Operations at Illumio and have been here for about a year and a half. My team facilitates the delivery of Illumio’s product portfolio to our stakeholders. We help orchestrate the different product operational cadences like strategic planning and quarterly product reviews in partnership with the engineering, product management and our partner stakeholders.

What made you interested in working at Illumio?

I’ve worked with Mario Espinoza, Illumio’s Chief Product Officer, in the past. He’s a leader that I highly respect, and when I heard that he had moved to Illumio, I knew that there must be something special about it for him to be there. Then, when Mario approached me and shared how excited he was about Illumio and its platform, he mentioned that my skills could be used to help scale the product operations. Hearing his excitement and the opportunity for me to contribute, I knew I wanted to be part of Illumio's story.

I’m also passionate about building products at scale and mentoring a team. My role at Illumio gives me the opportunity to take on a broader scope and influence that just isn’t possible at some of the larger companies I’ve worked at in the past.

What does a day in the life of Evangeline look like? What are you working on that excites you?

There’s a lot to do and learn everyday! Most of my time is spent working with the product management and engineering teams to execute on a product. I also collaborate with other stakeholders on the operational aspects of building a product.  

For example, we’re currently working on strategic planning for the next year. We’re discussing and formally documenting any changes or updates to our product strategy and detailing the outcomes we want from our products. We’re also meeting with customers on certain strategic programs to see how they’re using the products, what value they’re seeing, and how we can continue to innovate and improve.  

This kind of planning helps my team drive product execution — and it’s really what gets me excited about my role. I get to see and understand the drivers behind our product portfolio, both internally and with our customers, which helps my team with our product execution and drive value for our customers.  

What is the most important thing you’ve learned at Illumio so far?

I’ve worked for two big cybersecurity companies in the past, so I’ve seen how attacks evolve and advance over time. So many security platforms are still trying to prevent and detect everything. Working at Illumio, I’ve really come to see how we can’t just prevent anymore — breaches are inevitable!

Illumio is so practical in its breach containment approach and really acknowledges the fact that a breach could happen at any organization at any time. It’s really a matter of how fast you control the breach and reduce the risk for the business.  

What are you passionate about outside of your career?

Oh, there’s a lot! Family is important to me and my husband. We have a lot of family living abroad, so we make it a point to talk to our parents and siblings every week. We’re huge Warriors fans — win or lose! — and we love watching the game whether live or on TV.  

We're also very passionate about traveling. We try to visit a new place at least once a year and learn about the culture through visiting sites and eating good food. Last December, we went to Madrid. We’d been to Barcelona in the past and were thrilled to see how different Madrid is despite the two cities being in the same country! We’ve also been to other cities and there’s still quite a lot on our bucket list, but we try to visit our families in Asia once a year.

Which Illumio core value resonates most with you and why?

Leverage differences. I always see me and my team as the conductor of an orchestra. In an orchestra, you have different individuals with their own unique talents, and together they produce very nice music. It’s the same at Illumio — we get to work with people with different backgrounds and experiences. Every team member has something to contribute to the success of Illumio. Part of my team’s role is fostering and promoting collaboration because we believe that’s key to winning.  

What do you want people to know about working at Illumio?

It’s a great place to be! I work with incredible people, we have a great technology, and the growth of our platform is amazing. It’s a good time to join Illumio. There’s a lot of opportunities to go and learn!

Interested in joining the team? Check out our current openings.