[mooreds]

My suggestion would be to move to something security adjacent that still uses your software skills.

Options:

   * devops (mentioned in other comments)
   * auth (lots of needs for crypto and other security knowledge)
   * cloud security (gobs and gobs of need for this)

You could do this by trying to transition internally, but that will be difficult because of your position as a contractor. You could try to get hired as a FTE by your current company.

Another option would be to seek out a security company that has dev needs. You could do this with a smaller company (like r2c), a medium size company (like snyk) or a large company with security needs (like github). At each of these companies, they'll probably want you full time.

I don't know about certs as a means for getting hired, but they certainly have helped me dive deeper into a topic (a forcing function, if you will). If you were into the cloud security option, for example, I'd probably get the AWS arch cert and then the security specialization.

HTH.