Short answer: yes — and you have advantages that most beginners don’t.
What transfers: Vehicle electrical architecture, CAN bus, sensors and actuators, diagnostic tools, systematic troubleshooting.
What doesn’t transfer: Combustion physics. Understanding what rail pressure does to spray quality, what SOI retard does to exhaust temperature.
The honest answer on timeline: 6–9 months to independent Stage 1 capability on diesel with structured training.
Your electrical background gives you a head start on diagnostics. Diesel Fundamental fills in the combustion physics gap — the part that doesn’t transfer from auto electrical.