OWASP 2026 Global Board Elections
Bio
About me
I am a security professional with more than 20 years in the information technology industry. I started as a developer, grew into a full-stack developer, and then moved into security, where I have worked across Data Loss Prevention, offensive security, identity and API security, and SIEM.
Today I am a Sales Engineer for Latin America at Fortra, helping organizations across the region adopt data protection and offensive security solutions such as Cobalt Strike, Core Impact, and Outflank. Before Fortra, I held technical roles at IBM, Broadcom, and CA Technologies, implementing API management, Single Sign-On, Identity & Access Management, and Privileged Access Management solutions. Along the way I built SIEM connectors and learned firsthand where the API lifecycle tends to break.
My OWASP Journey
I lead the OWASP São Paulo chapter, serve as Secretary on the OWASP Europe board, and completed a 2025 term on the OWASP Global Board of Directors, appointed to fill a vacated seat. That term gave me a direct view of how the board works, and it is why I am running again.
What I Will Work For
Transparent, accountable governance: OWASP deserves a board that is financially sound and answerable to its members.
Stronger chapters and projects: securing the resources our volunteers need to succeed.
Sustainable fundraising: growing the support that keeps our mission going.
A truly global community: as a trilingual member (Portuguese, English, and Spanish), I want to bring more of the world, especially Latin America, into OWASP's decisions.
Beyond Security
Outside of work, I'm a dad who is passionate about his son, and being his father is the role I'm proudest of. To stay balanced, I run, lift weights, and go for long walks that help me clear my head. You'll also often find me at a Brazilian boteco, the neighborhood bar where good conversations happen over a cold drink and some snacks. That's where I feel most at home: connecting with people and talking about anything from technology to life in general. For me, that's also what OWASP is about: people coming together, sharing ideas, and building something bigger than any of us alone.
Your Vote
Voting runs October 15–30. When you are choosing among outstanding candidates, I ask for your vote for the Board of Directors. Together, let's build a stronger, more transparent OWASP.
Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsmartins/
Questions
What unique strategic goal do you intend to bring on board, if you are elected?
If elected to the OWASP board, my strategy would be to establish more benefits to OWASP members in a way to increase engagement, knowledge transfers, mentorship for security professionals and recruitment for mentors, that way we can foster a more connected and supportive OWASP community. Focusing on mentorship, we create a multiplier effect for OWASP's impact, ensuring that the organization's wealth of knowledge and resources reaches and influences a broader audience in a more personalized and effective manner.
What is your vision for OWASP over the next three to five years?
We need to focus on fostering a more inclusive and dynamic security community, that way we can expand our impact over the next five years. Things like expanding technology coverage, for example, broadening the focus beyond web applications to emerging areas like IoT, AI/ML, and quantum computing security. Creating comprehensive guidance for cloud-native and nerveless architectures. Also, we need to enhance Collaboration Tools to be able to implement a modern, user-friendly collaboration platform for project management and communication
What contributions have you personally made to OWASP or other open source projects?
I have no relevant or memorable contributions to OWASP, I have been a member since 2021 and have participated in trainings, and I feel a huge lack of greater communication and awareness of the available tools and how we can contribute to projects so that they become even more relevant and viable.
What strategies would you implement to increase community engagement and participation in OWASP?
OWASP needs to be more accessible, engaging, and responsive to the needs of a diverse global community. Simplify the onboarding, creating or providing a mentorship program pairing newcomers with experienced members, also, localization efforts, bring the community to help with translation of key resources into multiple languages, supporting and promoting local OWASP chapters more actively. We need to bring the early professionals to learn and contribute, one of the initiatives should be virtual hackathons or security challenges with universities.
What will be your efforts to ensure OWASP continues to be a centerpiece in software security?
Make OWASP not just a reference point, but an integral part of the software security ecosystem, embedded in tools, processes, and education at all levels of the industry. Need to modernize and expand core resources, and education initiatives, improve our accessibility and usability, and foster innovation in security tools for emerging technologies.
What should OWASP stop doing and why?
Changes are needed, and I would say stop doing it but start doing it differently. Such as overemphasis on Web Application Security and not looking into emerging technologies like IoT, AI/ML, and cloud-native architectures. Stop wasting resources to maintain outdated projects or not-used projects. Some OWASP resources are overly complex, making them challenging for newcomers to understand and apply.
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