An information technology certification related to your subject matter expertise, such as a security certification (e.g., CISSP, CGRC, CSSLP, CCSP, CompTIA Security+ or SecurityX), a development certification (e.g., Oracle Certified Professional: Java SE Developer, AWS Certified Developer – Associate), or a systems or cloud certification (e.g., RHCE, CKA, AWS Certified Security – Specialty). Your experience building software or running systems is what makes you effective: you'll understand what a finding means in the code or configuration, separate real risk from noise, and recommend fixes that teams can realistically implement.