Her Story
About Leyla
My career started over 25 years ago when my mom opened up a staffing company and had me helping out in high school. I really started my career in staffing with the Detroit Automotives, then moved to Tampa to do staffing on the financial side. I started working for a really progressive small company supporting SOCOM, and we ended up getting bought by General Dynamics. I rose as high as I could go on the staffing side, then wanted to switch gears and go towards operations and P&L management, so I changed mid-career. I stayed in that role for about 10 years and supported over about $500 million on the government side. Now I'm doing strategic business development because I'm seeing business flowing through the administration side before it really reaches acquisition. My current position is with KBR, a defense contractor, where I've been for about a year at the enterprise level for strategic account management, completely supporting SOCOM in the areas of Information Technology and Human Performance. My key responsibilities are around technical solutioning, working with large teams across the organization in key areas like human performance or information technology. I do a lot of internal coordination, working with our functional teams, contracts, staffing, and talent acquisition. What we're doing is building a presence here in Tampa for KBR, standing up an office, getting local teams together, and collapsing a lot of our work across the enterprise into Tampa.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Leyla
01What do you attribute your success to?
Honestly, the teams I work with and the people I work with - trust is a key element. For example, I followed my boss here that I worked for for 10 years at Jacobs, so the team is key for success. Everyone being mission-focused and working together, that's what I attribute most of the success to. And working for leadership that allows me to grow and not cage me in a cage - that would be another one.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to be transparent and not worry so much about what other people are doing, because a lot of people tend to have their own agenda, so to just stay focused on the mission at hand. One person told me a long time ago that you'll always have respect from the people that matter the most to you, and nobody else can be on the same level. That was a pivotal point in my career. I work in government, and women in business can get caught up in certain circles, so that advice really helped me. I tend to fuse together with women in business at my level.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say to not have any expectations and to try and pick up the jobs that are the hard ones that you can kind of figure out and solution - where there's no clear path. Go off on a road to fix maybe a little thing that's been needed for a year or to untangle something, so just be flexible with your career path and not stay so one-track thought-minded. I mentor a lot of kids coming out of college, and I think kids have this expectation like 'I do this and I want to do this,' and I think having the flexibility in your career to learn new things and adapt is key.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is working with the government because sometimes timelines will slip or money doesn't come in how it should. So just getting around the forefront of what the government's new acquisition strategy is under Hexat, the Department of War - that's a big challenge for us right now. We were affected by Doge, and then just trying to come up from that. So holding them accountable for their timelines is a challenge.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I would definitely say trust, transparency, and accountability - those would be my top three values that are most important in my personal and professional life.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Florida
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.