In today's digital landscape, DevSecOps Engineers have become critical guardians of the software development lifecycle, embedding security principles into every stage of the process. According to the DevSecOps Community Survey, organizations with mature DevSecOps practices are 2.6 times more likely to identify security vulnerabilities before code reaches production. This integration of security into development and operations isn't just a technical role—it's a transformative approach that requires both technical expertise and exceptional interpersonal skills.

DevSecOps Engineers serve as the crucial bridge between development, operations, and security teams, preventing the traditional siloed approach that often leads to vulnerabilities. They implement automated security testing, create secure infrastructure as code, establish compliance guardrails, and champion a security-first mindset throughout the organization. From configuring container security to orchestrating threat modeling sessions, their responsibilities span the entire development pipeline.

When interviewing candidates for this role, focus on uncovering evidence of both technical security knowledge and the ability to influence organizational change. The best DevSecOps professionals can translate complex security concepts for different audiences, automate security controls without impeding development velocity, and demonstrate a proactive approach to threat prevention. Using behavioral interview questions allows you to assess how candidates have applied these skills in real-world scenarios, providing valuable insights into how they might perform in your environment.

To effectively evaluate candidates, listen for specific security implementations rather than general concepts. Use follow-up questions to probe for technical details, measurable outcomes, and lessons learned from past experiences. The most successful DevSecOps Engineers have a track record of balancing security requirements with business needs while continuously improving their security practices.

Interview Questions

Tell me about a time when you identified a security vulnerability in your organization's development pipeline and how you addressed it.

Areas to Cover:

• How the vulnerability was discovered (proactive scanning, incident response, etc.)
• The potential impact of the vulnerability
• Steps taken to address the immediate risk
• Longer-term solutions implemented
• How they communicated the issue to different stakeholders
• Measures put in place to prevent similar issues in the future

Follow-Up Questions:

• What tools or techniques did you use to identify the vulnerability?
• How did you prioritize this vulnerability among other security concerns?
• What resistance did you encounter when implementing the fix, and how did you overcome it?
• What processes or controls did you put in place to prevent similar vulnerabilities?

Describe a situation where you had to implement security automation in a CI/CD pipeline. What approach did you take and what were the results?

Areas to Cover:

• The security challenge they were trying to address with automation
• Tools and technologies selected for the implementation
• How they integrated security into existing workflows
• Metrics used to measure success
• Challenges encountered during implementation
• The ultimate impact on security posture and development velocity

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you balance security requirements with development speed?
• What was the developer experience like before and after your implementation?
• What specific security tests or checks did you automate?
• How did you handle false positives in your automated security testing?

Share an experience where you had to convince developers or operations teams to adopt a security practice they were initially resistant to.

Areas to Cover:

• The specific security practice being advocated for
• Why there was resistance to adoption
• Their approach to understanding stakeholder concerns
• How they built consensus and buy-in
• Methods used to demonstrate value to resistant teams
• The outcome and any lessons learned

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you address the team's concerns about the security practice?
• What data or evidence did you present to make your case?
• How did you ensure the security practice was sustainable long-term?
• Looking back, is there anything you'd do differently in your approach?

Tell me about a time when you had to respond to a security incident in your production environment. How did you handle it?

Areas to Cover:

• The nature of the security incident
• Their immediate response actions
• Cross-team coordination during the incident
• Communication strategies with stakeholders
• Resolution process and timeline
• Post-incident analysis and improvements made

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you prioritize actions during the incident response?
• What tools or processes were most valuable during the incident?
• What improvements did you make to your environment after the incident?
• How did you balance security remediation with business continuity needs?

Describe a situation where you had to implement security practices in a cloud or containerized environment.

Areas to Cover:

• The specific cloud platform or container technology used
• Security challenges unique to that environment
• Security controls and tools implemented
• How they maintained security through infrastructure changes
• Compliance considerations addressed
• Monitoring and detection capabilities implemented

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you approach the security architecture for this environment?
• What specific security controls did you implement and why?
• How did you ensure consistent security across different environments?
• What was your approach to managing secrets and sensitive information?

Tell me about a time when you conducted a threat modeling exercise for a new application or feature. What was your approach?

Areas to Cover:

• The methodology or framework used for threat modeling
• How they engaged with different stakeholders
• Specific threats identified and their risk assessment
• How findings were documented and communicated
• Security controls recommended based on the assessment
• How the threat model was maintained over time

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you prioritize the identified threats?
• What was your process for engaging developers in the threat modeling exercise?
• How did you translate identified threats into actionable security requirements?
• How did you validate that the implemented controls addressed the identified threats?

Share an experience where you had to balance security requirements with business or development needs.

Areas to Cover:

• The nature of the conflict between security and business/development
• How they assessed the security risks involved
• Their approach to understanding business constraints
• The compromise or solution they developed
• How they communicated with different stakeholders
• The ultimate outcome and any lessons learned

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you quantify the security risks in this situation?
• What alternatives did you consider before deciding on your approach?
• How did you ensure the solution met minimum security requirements?
• What feedback did you receive from stakeholders about your solution?

Describe a situation where you had to learn a new security tool or technology quickly to address an emerging threat or requirement.

Areas to Cover:

• The specific tool or technology they needed to learn
• Why it was necessary to adopt it quickly
• Their approach to learning and mastering the new technology
• How they implemented it in their environment
• Challenges encountered during the implementation
• The impact of the new tool or technology on their security posture

Follow-Up Questions:

• What resources did you use to learn about this new tool or technology?
• How did you evaluate whether this solution was the right fit for your needs?
• What was your implementation strategy to minimize disruption?
• How did you transfer knowledge to your team about this new tool?

Tell me about a time when you had to ensure compliance with specific security standards or regulations in your DevOps practices.

Areas to Cover:

• The specific regulations or standards they needed to comply with
• How they assessed current compliance gaps
• Changes implemented to achieve compliance
• Tools or automation used to maintain compliance
• How they balanced compliance requirements with development agility
• Methods for demonstrating compliance to auditors

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you interpret the compliance requirements for your technical environment?
• What processes did you implement to maintain continuous compliance?
• How did you address compliance requirements in your CI/CD pipeline?
• How did you prepare for and manage compliance audits?

Share an experience where you improved the security awareness or skills of your development or operations teams.

Areas to Cover:

• The specific security knowledge gap identified
• Their approach to security education or training
• Methods used to make security relevant to their audience
• How they measured improvement in security awareness
• Long-term strategies for maintaining security culture
• Challenges encountered and how they were overcome

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you identify the security knowledge gaps in your team?
• What formats or approaches did you find most effective for security training?
• How did you make security practices relevant to developers' daily work?
• How did you measure the effectiveness of your security awareness efforts?

Describe a situation where you had to design or improve a secure coding practice to prevent common vulnerabilities.

Areas to Cover:

• The specific vulnerability or class of vulnerabilities targeted
• How they identified the need for this practice
• Their approach to designing a secure coding solution
• How they implemented and documented the practice
• Methods for ensuring adoption by development teams
• Impact on code quality and security posture

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you identify which secure coding practices would be most valuable?
• What tools or processes did you implement to support this practice?
• How did you handle existing code that didn't meet the new standards?
• How did you measure the success of these secure coding practices?

Tell me about a time when you had to secure a complex integration between multiple systems or services.

Areas to Cover:

• The nature of the integration and security challenges involved
• How they assessed security risks in the integration
• Authentication and authorization mechanisms implemented
• Data protection measures across system boundaries
• Monitoring and logging strategies for the integration
• Any compliance considerations addressed

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you identify the security requirements for this integration?
• What were the most challenging security aspects of this integration?
• How did you handle credentials and secrets management across systems?
• What monitoring did you implement to detect security issues in the integration?

Share an experience where you had to implement infrastructure as code with security controls built in.

Areas to Cover:

• The infrastructure as code tools or platforms used
• Security requirements addressed in the implementation
• How security was verified in the IaC process
• Methods for preventing security drift in the infrastructure
• Challenges encountered in maintaining security through code
• The impact on the overall security posture and operations

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you verify that your infrastructure code met security requirements?
• What security guardrails did you implement in your IaC process?
• How did you handle secrets management in your infrastructure code?
• What processes did you establish to ensure security was maintained during infrastructure changes?

Describe a situation where you had to enhance an organization's security monitoring and detection capabilities.

Areas to Cover:

• The state of security monitoring before their involvement
• How they identified gaps in detection capabilities
• Tools and technologies implemented or configured
• Types of threats or activities they focused on detecting
• Integration with incident response processes
• Metrics used to measure improvement in detection capability

Follow-Up Questions:

• How did you determine which threats were most important to detect?
• What data sources did you incorporate into your monitoring solution?
• How did you minimize false positives in your detection system?
• How did you ensure appropriate response to security alerts?

Tell me about a time when you had to research and evaluate security tools or solutions for your organization. What was your approach?

Areas to Cover:

• The security need or problem they were trying to address
• How they established evaluation criteria
• Research methods and resources utilized
• Stakeholders involved in the evaluation process
• How they tested or validated potential solutions
• The ultimate decision process and implementation approach

Follow-Up Questions:

• What criteria were most important in your evaluation?
• How did you validate vendor claims about their solutions?
• How did you assess the integration capabilities of the tools you evaluated?
• What was your approach to piloting or testing the solutions?

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I look for in a DevSecOps Engineer's answers about security implementation?

Look for candidates who can describe specific security tools, methodologies, and technologies they've implemented. Strong candidates will explain not just what they did but why they chose specific approaches, how they measured success, and how they balanced security with development needs. They should demonstrate understanding of both application and infrastructure security concepts.

How can I tell if a candidate truly understands DevSecOps principles versus just knowing security concepts?

True DevSecOps engineers will emphasize automation, integration into development workflows, and cross-team collaboration in their answers. They'll talk about making security accessible to developers, implementing "security as code," and embedding controls throughout the pipeline rather than as gate-keeping activities. Listen for mentions of shifting security left and empowering teams rather than just enforcing policies.

What experiences should a senior DevSecOps Engineer have versus a mid-level candidate?

Senior candidates should demonstrate experience designing security architectures, leading security initiatives across teams, influencing organizational security culture, and making strategic security decisions. They should have examples of implementing comprehensive DevSecOps transformations and measuring their impact. Mid-level candidates may have more focused examples of implementing specific security controls or tools within existing frameworks.

How important is cloud security experience for a DevSecOps role?

Very important for most modern environments. Strong DevSecOps candidates should understand cloud-specific security models, identity and access management in cloud environments, infrastructure as code security, and container security. The specific cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) may vary, but the security principles should be transferable. If your organization uses cloud services extensively, prioritize candidates with relevant experience.

Should DevSecOps Engineers have formal security certifications?

While certifications like CISSP, CSSLP, or cloud security certifications can indicate a baseline of knowledge, they shouldn't be the primary qualification. Focus on practical experience implementing security in development environments. Some certifications may be compliance requirements for your organization, but practical experience and a security mindset are more valuable than certification alone.

Interested in a full interview guide for a DevSecOps Engineer role? Sign up for Yardstick and build it for free.