▣ DevSecOps Engineer Roadmap

The path: Beginner → Intermediate → Advanced

Beginner

Focus: Understand the shift-left security mindset and integrate basic security checks into CI pipelines without slowing delivery.

Skills to build

• Understanding OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities
• Static application security testing (SAST) concepts
• Dependency vulnerability scanning and SCA
• Secrets detection in source code and git history
• Container image scanning for CVEs
• Basic threat modeling methodology
• Security gates in CI/CD pipelines
• Linux security hardening fundamentals

Tools to learn

• Trivy
• Snyk
• GitLeaks
• SonarQube
• Checkov
• Git

Intermediate

Focus: Implement dynamic testing, policy as code, and secrets management across the full CI/CD pipeline and cloud infrastructure.

Skills to build

• Dynamic application security testing (DAST) integration
• Infrastructure as code security scanning
• Policy as code authoring with OPA Rego
• Secrets management with Vault and cloud KMS
• Kubernetes security hardening and admission control
• Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) generation
• Container runtime security and behavioral monitoring
• Cloud security posture management (CSPM)

Tools to learn

• HashiCorp Vault
• OPA/Gatekeeper
• Falco
• OWASP ZAP
• Terraform Sentinel
• Syft

Advanced

Focus: Architect organization-wide DevSecOps programs, manage supply chain security, and build developer-friendly security guardrails at scale.

Skills to build

• Software supply chain security and SLSA framework compliance
• Zero-trust architecture design and implementation
• Security chaos engineering and red team exercises
• Compliance as code for SOC 2, PCI DSS, and HIPAA
• Developer security culture and security champion programs
• Advanced threat modeling and attack surface analysis
• Multi-cloud security governance and unified policy enforcement
• Security metrics, KPIs, and risk quantification for leadership

Tools to learn

• Sigstore/Cosign
• in-toto
• Prisma Cloud
• Wiz
• AWS Security Hub
• Falco

Labs to practice

• Trivy Container Scan
• SonarQube Code Scan
• CI/CD with GitHub Actions

Interview questions to prepare

1. What is the difference between SAST and DAST, and when should each be used in a pipeline?
2. How do you prevent secrets from being committed to a Git repository?
3. Explain the concept of a software supply chain attack and how you would defend against it.
4. How would you implement policy as code to enforce security standards across Kubernetes clusters?
5. What is an SBOM and why is it important for compliance and vulnerability management?
6. How do you balance security gate strictness with developer velocity?
7. Describe how you would harden a Docker container image for production use.
8. What is the SLSA framework and what level does your current organization achieve?

Certification suggestions

• Certified DevSecOps Professional (CDP) — Practical DevSecOps
• AWS Certified Security – Specialty — Amazon Web Services
• Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKS) — CNCF
• Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) — EC-Council
• Google Professional Cloud Security Engineer — Google Cloud

See exam formats, costs and official links in the certification registry.

Free resources

• OWASP DevSecOps Guideline
• Trivy Documentation
• CNCF Cloud Native Security Whitepaper
• SLSA Supply Chain Framework
• HashiCorp Vault Tutorials

Portfolio project ideas

• Build a fully secured CI/CD pipeline with SAST, SCA, container scanning, and secrets detection gates that blocks on critical findings
• Implement OPA Gatekeeper policies on a Kubernetes cluster to enforce resource limits, image registry allowlists, and security contexts
• Create a secrets management workflow using HashiCorp Vault with dynamic credentials for database access in a Kubernetes workload
• Generate and publish SBOMs for a container application and set up automated CVE monitoring with Grype

Mistakes to avoid

• Running security scans only at the end of the pipeline — shift-left means scanning at every commit and PR
• Treating all CVE findings as equal urgency — prioritize exploitable, internet-facing, high-severity issues first
• Storing long-lived static credentials in CI/CD environment variables instead of using OIDC or short-lived tokens
• Not involving developers in security tooling decisions, leading to shadow IT and security bypasses
• Ignoring IaC security scanning — misconfigured Terraform and Helm charts are a major attack surface

Keep going

• Follow the structured DevSecOps 90-Day Learning Path
• Explore DevSecOps Tools
• Explore Security Tools
• Explore Secrets Management Tools
• Explore Container Security Tools
• Explore Policy as Code Tools
• Want guided, instructor-led training? See DevOpsSchool.com courses (paid).