Okan YILDIZ

Sharpshooter
DISC Type : DC

Staff Security Engineer at Depop

Leighton Buzzard, England, United Kingdom

Overview

Okan YILDIZ is the Staff Security Engineer at Depop, with over nine years of experience in cybersecurity, specializing in application security, DevSecOps, and threat modeling. Holding certifications like CCISO and CEH, people often describe him as a "true professional" with "deep technical expertise" and an "unwavering work ethic. "

Passionate about advancing the cybersecurity field, he serves as the Chairman of UNIQUESEC, a global non-profit organization for industry professionals. He actively contributes to community building and knowledge sharing, connecting experts from around the world to foster collaboration and innovation in cyber resilience.

As the first technical Security Engineer at Depop, he was responsible for establishing the companys entire security function from the ground up.

Personality Overview

Rigorous & Demanding

Precise But Practical

Fast But Analytical

They take a lot of pride in personal achievements.  They are not always relationship oriented. They like to move fast and expect the same from others.

Topics They Care About

Application Security
His expertise includes scaling tools like Snyk and Semgrep for thousands of engineers, overseeing SAST/DAST, and conducting secure code analysis at major retail and tech companies.
DevSecOps Implementation
He focuses on integrating security practices directly into the development lifecycle, ensuring a proactive and embedded approach to building secure applications from inception to scale.
Active Directory Security
He recently emphasized moving beyond hardening policies to build strong detection mechanisms for how attackers actually operate within a domain.

Media Appearances

Okan has no verified media appearances

Work History

11-2025
Staff Security Engineer at Depop
11-2022
Chairman at UNIQUESEC
2-2025 - 11-2025
Principal Product Security Engineer at Marks and Spencer
4-2023 - 2-2025
Lead Security Engineer & Architect at SITA
11-2019 - 2-2025
Director at Secure Debug

Education

2013 - 2017
Software Engineering from Manisa Celal Bayar University
2011 - 2012
Education details unavailable from Fatih Gelenbevi Anadolu Lisesi

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 12 Location : Leighton Buzzard, England, United Kingdom Job Level : Middle Designation : Staff Security Engineer at Depop
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Insights For Selling To Okan

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Be respectful but crisp
  • Use phrases like ‘it’s your decision’, ‘strategic impact’ etc.
  • Refer to testimonials from well-known industry leaders

DONT's

  • Avoid being a storyteller and don’t try to oversell
  • Don’t be in a rush to invite them for a social meet and greet
  • Avoid being too verbose

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Okan is

  • Conviction around the impact matters the most to them, followed by a sense of achievement and ROI.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Okan

  • If they decide not to use your product, they will say no clearly.

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Okan move?

  • They can reach decisions fairly quickly if they are convinced.
  • Can Okan take some risk or not?

  • They don’t mind risks but can be quite binary about them.

You And Okan

Personality Compatibility


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