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Deriv has appointed Rotimi Akinyele Chief Technology Officer, putting him in charge of the broker's engineering organisation. His new remit connects automation and internal AI tooling with the security work he has led since joining the company in July 2024.
Akinyele arrived as Vice President of Security. His responsibilities first covered Security and Data, then automation spanning Compliance, Finance and Data, followed by work in Trading and Antifraud.
Automation sets the new remit
Deriv wants Akinyele to automate work across the company, strengthen its internal AI tools and develop a software process where AI agents can help refine their own results. The broker is targeting automation of 75% of its manual workflows by the end of 2026.
The company says security and access management remain central as agents take on more duties and permissions. That puts the controls around those tools within the technology organisation's work, alongside the push to expand automation.
Security experience informs the choice
Before Deriv, Akinyele was Director in the Group Information Security Department at Dubai Holding. His remit there covered the conglomerate's education, media, ICT, real estate and hospitality units. Earlier, he was Head of Information Security and Business Continuity at a government authority in Ras Al Khaimah, UAE.
CEO Rakshit Choudhary linked the appointment to the need to secure more systems as agents gain responsibility. Akinyele said he wants engineering change to continue at its current pace while security and controls keep pace with each automated system.
AI tools already span operations
In a September interview with Finance Magnates, Choudhary said Deriv staff no longer write code manually. He described AI tools being used across HR, finance, compliance, marketing, product and engineering, with staff given tool access and weekly training sessions. He also said automation had taken on some roles previously considered redundant.
Deriv has been developing AI and data hubs in Malta, Dubai and Malaysia, among other offices. The company has also described a SecAI bot using Claude-3.7 and AWS GuardDuty to assess security alerts in real time and automate responses.
Where this lands in the stack
For engineering and risk teams, the appointment puts workflow automation, internal AI tools and agent access within the CTO's remit. The report does not specify which systems agents can access, how those permissions are approved or recorded, or how agent-assisted code changes are tested before release.
Those are practical points to clarify as automation expands. Operators should ask how access controls apply across the systems agents use, and how the SecAI bot's automated responses fit with the wider security process. Deriv has not detailed those integrations or the operating costs of its automation programme.
