Look for a person with the title of application engineer.... this person will write the scope and bid documents.... this person will not be cheap, but the division of labor will be clear.... ( my title before retirement was application engineer) ..
i’m starting to get afraid I will chase away the guys I want to use. I’ve never heard of an application engineer (maybe I am ignorant, dunno). but i’d have to come up to speed and involve a 4th party, adding complexity and possibly causing the other guys to drop out at which point I would be starting from less than scratch since it’s taken me a long time just to get this far.
thanks for your input.