Level 3 — Solution Engineer (DESIGN)
Level 3 certifies that an engineer can design and lead a complete project: architecture, capacity, product selection, cybersecurity and cloud integration, assessed by project design, lab and technical interview.
Level 3 does not ask where a button is. It asks: given a real project, can you design it?
Prerequisites
- MILESGO Level 2 certification
- At least 2 years of relevant engineering experience
- At least 3 delivered projects, at least one of them a multi-protocol integration (for example BACnet + Modbus + MQTT, or LoRaWAN + BACnet + cloud)
Core competencies
1. Solution architecture
Design the full data path, layer by layer:
- Field devices: sensors, PLCs, meters, HVAC equipment
- Edge gateways and DDC controllers
- Integration protocols: BACnet, Modbus, MQTT, OPC UA
- WEB HMI
- Cloud, BMS or SCADA
- API and AI applications
2. Capacity design
- Device count
- Point count
- Number of gateways
- Number of RS-485 segments
- Network topology
- Polling interval
- Data update rate
- Cloud bandwidth
- Data storage
3. Product selection
Select equipment from the project requirements, not by reading down a model table:
- Gateways
- DDC controllers
- I/O modules
- LoRaWAN gateways
- 4G gateways
- WEB HMI
- Cloud platform
4. Design documents
- Architecture diagram
- Network diagram
- Point list
- Device list
- Bill of materials
- Communication matrix
- Commissioning plan
5. Cybersecurity fundamentals
- User management
- Password policy
- HTTPS and TLS
- VPN
- Firewall
- Network segmentation
- Remote access
- Certificates
6. API and cloud
- REST API
- MQTT
- JSON
- Cloud architecture
- Third-party integration
7. AI-ready architecture (to be added)
Planned additions to the Level 3 syllabus:
- AI agents
- MCP (Model Context Protocol)
- Building and industrial data models
- Semantic data models
- AI-ready gateways
Level 3 assessment
Part A — Project design
The candidate receives a realistic project brief, for example a 20-storey commercial building that must integrate:
- 10 chillers
- 60 AHUs
- 400 energy meters
- 200 LoRaWAN sensors
- Lighting system
- UPS
- Generator
The candidate submits:
- Architecture
- Network diagram
- Product selection
- Protocol design
- Point calculation
- Gateway calculation
- BOM
- Cybersecurity design
- Cloud integration
Part B — Practical integration
Complete a specified system integration in the lab.
Part C — Technical interview
A 30–45 minute technical review with the MILESGO technical committee. It does not test memorised answers; it asks why the design is the way it is.
Scoring
Component | Weight |
|---|---|
Solution design | 40% |
Practical test | 30% |
Technical interview | 20% |
Technical knowledge | 10% |
Pass mark: a total of at least 85%.
Certificate
Successful candidates receive MILESGO Certified Solution Engineer – Level 3, the senior technical qualification within the MILESGO partner network.