Mert SARICA

As of February 2023, Mert has been working at SOCRadar® Extended Threat Intelligence as the VP of Security Research & Operations. SOCRadar is a cybersecurity company committed to democratizing threat intelligence and providing superior cybersecurity solutions to thousands of companies in hundreds of countries. SOCRadar's mission is to provide organizations of all sizes with the tools to counter cyber threats.

In his current position, Mert has been advising the CEO on strategic and operational decisions that align with the company’s mission, long-term objectives, and growth strategy.

Mert has been driving innovation across the organization by championing new ideas, features, and architectural improvements — with a strong focus on AI-powered automation and agent-based workflows.

Mert has designed and overseen the integration of AI agents into security operations, including automated threat monitoring and enrichment, intelligence correlation and prioritization, analyst augmentation and decision support, as well as AI-assisted threat hunting and anomaly detection. Through these initiatives, he has enhanced operational efficiency while improving analytical depth and response quality.

Mert has been managing, mentoring, and scaling a team of threat researchers, threat hunters, security analysts, who conduct advanced research on cyber threats. Under his leadership, AI agents have been leveraged to accelerate research processes, improve signal-to-noise ratio, and augment human expertise.

In addition, he has been overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Security Analyst and Support teams to ensure efficiency, service quality, and cost-effective resource utilization. He has progressively embedded AI agents into operational workflows to reduce manual effort, shorten response times, and increase consistency.

Furthermore, he has ensured seamless collaboration between human analysts and AI agents by defining clear operational boundaries, implementing quality controls, and establishing continuous feedback loops to strengthen detection, hunting, and response capabilities.

From October 2020 to September 2022, Mert demonstrated his expertise as an Executive Vice President / CISO of IT Security & Risk Management Group which incorporates Cyber Defense Center, Cyber Security Technologies, Cyber Security Architecture, Information Security & Risk Management teams (40 HCs) at Intertech. Intertech is an Information Technology subsidiary of DenizBank, owned by Emirates NBD

From January 2018 to September 2020 as the Vice President, Mert was responsible for the management of Akbank's Cyber Defence Center (CDC) which incorporates Vulnerability Management, Threat Detection, Threat Response & Intel, and Security Engineering teams. (26 HCs)

From 2007 to 2017 Mert was responsible for performing and managing penetration tests, malware analysis, security incident detection, and response as a Technical Lead in the Threat & Vulnerability Management team at IBTech. (Information Technology subsidiary of QNB Finansbank)

From 2014 – 2016 Mert instructed Malware Analysis course in Cyber Security Graduate Program at Bahcesehir University.

In 2003 Mert’s career journey began by discovering a security vulnerability on the e-portal web application of the Yeditepe University where he was studying at that time. After sharing his findings with the executives of the university, he was awarded an achievement grant and recruited as an Ethical Hacker. Mert graduated from Yeditepe University, Information Systems and Technologies in 2006 and Yeditepe University, Master of Business Administration program in 2010.

From the beginning of 2011, Mert spoke at more than 30 technical cyber security conferences. In addition, he was invited as a guest speaker to more than 40 universities to share his cyber security career journey and his profession “Ethical Hacker” to the students as a role model.