In my opinion, the most effective way for a DevOps engineer to transition into DevSecOps is to build on their existing CI/CD and automation skills while gradually embedding security into every stage of the pipeline, rather than treating it as a separate function. The first skills to prioritize are understanding common vulnerabilities (like those in the OWASP Top 10), secure coding practices, and basic threat modeling, because they help identify risks early in development. After that, engineers should focus on integrating automated security checks such as static code analysis (SAST), dependency and vulnerability scanning, and secrets management into CI/CD workflows. Gaining hands-on experience with container security, infrastructure-as-code scanning, and access control policies is also important for real-world environments. Continuous monitoring and compliance practices further strengthen production security. Overall, the key is to shift from just delivering fast to delivering securely, using automation to make security a natural and consistent part of the development lifecycle.