Yılmaz was born in 1971 in Istanbul. After completing his upper secondary education in 1989, he started studying in Department of Architecture at Istanbul Technical Universisty. During his education he participated in excavations in archaeological sites. After his gradition he worked at various desgin offices between 1993-1997 and in construction sites between 1997-1999.

Besides, he has been the board chairman of Arkitera Architecture Center since foundation, October 2000, untill the end of 2015, he has been the consultant of Arkitera and the coordinator of Kivi Strategic Planning.

Since 2005 Yılmaz has been within a wide range of competitions as a principal and consultant jury member.