Summary
Divan Jekels is a Senior Security Engineer based in Chicago with nearly a decade of hands-on experience building and operationalizing application security programs across enterprise and startup environments. He led secure SDLC initiatives at McDonald’s and Uptake, introducing SAST/DAST/SCA, IAST, orchestration of scanning pipelines, and developer-facing tooling to shift security left. Known for automating security processes, he has built internal dashboards and scripts to unify metrics and streamline OSS scanning, and he’s taught introductory web application hacking to engineering teams. Currently at Bytewhisper Security, he pairs practical penetration testing experience with program-level strategy, driving compliance with frameworks like OpenSAMM and BSIMM. With a B.Sc. in Mathematics and Computer Science, Divan blends analytical rigor with pragmatic engineering—he summarizes his GitHub presence simply as “I'm trying,” reflecting a hands-on, iterative approach to continuous learning and improvement.
9 years of coding experience
7 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Mathematics and Computer Science, Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) Mathematics and Computer Science at Northeastern Illinois University
English