Fatih Özatay holds a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from Middle East Technical University and a PhD in Economics from Ankara University.

He worked at Republic of Turkey State Railroads as an engineer in 1978-1979; and at State Planning Organization as a junior expert and expert between 1979 and 1985.

Following the two-year experience in private sector, Özatay was employed by Central Bank of Republic of Turkey Directorate General of Research. At the mentioned institution, he worked as expert, economist and deputy director general. In February 1995, he resigned his job at Central Bank of Republic of Turkey to work as an associate professor at Ankara University and was awarded the Associate Professor degree at November 1995. In addition, he offered courses in METU and Bilkent University. Özatay served as a consultant in Undersecretariat of Treasury, Directorate General for Economic Research between 1995 and 1999. After he earned the Professor degree in 2001, he worked as Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Republic of Turkey. Özatay participated in the design of monetary policy as the Deputy Governor and a member of Monetary Policy Board. He was the Dean of Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, TOBB University of Economics and Technology from April 2006 to 2008. Fatih Özatay still is an academic staff member at the same University and a consultant at TEPAV Macroeconomic Studies Program.

Özatay has written several articles on monetary crises, macroeconomic modeling, stability programs and reform processes published in national and international periodicals and books. In addition, Özatay has been writing commentaries on economics in Radikal daily since 1996 and in Dünya daily since February 2007. Özatay's research interests include stability programs, monetary crises, monetary policies and reforms.