Özkan entered politics in the CDU in 2004, and was appointed State Minister of Social Affairs, Women, Family, Health, and Integration in the state of Lower Saxony, serving in the cabinets of successive Ministers-President Christian Wulff and David McAllister from 27 April 2010 to 19 February 2013.

[4] In the negotiations to form a coalition government of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2013 national elections, she was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on integration and migration, led by Maria Böhmer and Aydan Özoğuz.

She caused some controversies in the German political establishment as she advocated a strictly secular policy and opposed the Christian cross as well as the Muslim headscarf in the schools.

She took a post as general manager of the DB Credit Service GmbH in Berlin, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank, on 1 August 2014.

She worked for Deutsche Telekom and the Dutch TNT Express before she entered politics.