Does anyone have advice on how to start working in this space? I'm open to part-time consulting roles to start, with a long-term goal of contributing full-time to a forward-thinking Bitcoin company.
You have to take it easy and first try to learn first because if you are new to bitcoin, there is of course still many things for you to learn because even if you know other things, your knowledge may not apply here and a reason you need to first learn from people who know better about bitcoins from this forum. If you look to transition with your pride into Bitcoin, you may end up not learning enough and you can be scammed because of the danger you put yourself due to incomplete knowledge.
Even if you are the CEO of any startup you have to be humble enough to learn from people here.