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Deriv has appointed Rotimi Akinyele as Chief Technology Officer, placing its former security lead over the broker's engineering organisation. The appointment comes as Deriv seeks to automate 75% of its manual workflows by the end of 2026.
Automation moves into engineering
Akinyele's new remit spans automation across the business, upgrades to Deriv's internal AI tools and a software development process where AI agents help refine their own output. He joined the company in July 2024, taking the Vice President of Security role. His work there covered Security and Data, automation for Compliance, Data and Finance, and later Trading and Antifraud.
His earlier security experience includes a post as Director in the Group Information Security Department at Dubai Holding, with cybersecurity responsibilities spanning education, media, ICT, real estate and hospitality. Before that, he was Head of Information Security and Business Continuity at a government authority in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.
Security follows agent access
Deriv said access management and security remain part of the programme as AI agents take on wider permissions and duties. CEO Rakshit Choudhary linked Akinyele's appointment to that requirement: "As we automate more and give agents greater access and responsibility, we have more systems and operations to secure," he said. Akinyele has said his aim is to keep engineering change moving while ensuring security and controls expand alongside automated systems.
In September, Choudhary told Finance Magnates that Deriv no longer relies on people to write code manually. He described AI-supported automation in HR, finance, compliance, marketing, product and engineering. Staff have AI tools and weekly training sessions, he said, while automation has taken on some work in roles previously considered redundant. Deriv is also developing AI and data hubs in Malta, Dubai and Malaysia, among other offices.
Deriv has also described SecAI, a bot built with Claude-3.7 and AWS GuardDuty, which the company says reviews security alerts in real time and automates responses. NAGA Group has separately said AI handles most chat-based customer support without human agents, and that automation allows it to operate its marketing department with roughly 20% fewer staff.
What to watch next
For engineering and risk teams, the operational questions are how agent permissions will be assigned, monitored and limited as automation spreads across functions. Deriv has not specified how the new development process will be integrated with existing controls, or how it will measure whether agents improve their own output.
Teams assessing similar programmes will need to establish where access reviews, security-alert handling and workflow oversight sit as agents gain responsibility. The announcement gives no detail on implementation timelines beyond the end-of-2026 automation target, or on the systems that will be changed first.
