Add article: Make your cross-platform skills official with Fleet certification

articles/make-your-cross-platform-skills-official-with-fleet-certification.md

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+# Make your cross-platform skills official with Fleet certification
+
+*This August, the multi-OS work you already do gets a credential to match: Apple, Windows, and Linux, managed as code.*
+
+## Key takeaways
+
+- **Cross-platform skill, on paper.** Fleet's updated certification program launches in August with admin credentials for Apple, Windows, and Linux, so the multi-OS work you already do has something official behind it.
+- **GitOps gets its own track.** Two credentials, Fleet GitOps level 1 and Fleet GitOps level 2, cover managing devices declaratively through pull requests instead of console clicks.
+- **Five credentials unlock the capstone.** The three platform certifications and both GitOps levels are prerequisites for Fleet expert, a single exam you can only take once you hold all five.
+- **The core path is taught in person.** Every credential on the road to Fleet expert comes from a hands-on, instructor-led workshop. You learn by doing it live, not by watching a video.
+- **Electives are self-paced and arrive all year.** Tracks like Fleet self-managed and Developing with the Fleet API let you study on your own schedule, then validate the outcome. The list grows alongside the product.
+- **Workshops begin in August.** Dates and details on how to take part will land on the Fleet workshops page.
+
+<a purpose="cta-button" href="/workshops">Find a workshop</a>
+
+For years, the most valuable people in device management haven't fit neatly into a single vendor's box. The same admin enrolls a Mac, hardens a Windows laptop, and scripts a Linux server before lunch. The skills are real. A credential that reflects all of them, in one place, hasn't existed.
+
+That changes in August. Fleet is launching its first certification program, built around the way real fleets run: many operating systems, managed as code, from a single control plane. Here's what's coming first.
+
+## What launches in August
+
+The program opens with three platform credentials: Fleet-certified Apple admin, Fleet-certified Windows admin, and Fleet-certified Linux admin. Each one covers running that operating system through Fleet end to end: enrolling devices, enforcing configuration and policies, deploying and updating software, and answering questions about your fleet with live queries.
+
+They're separate credentials rather than one blended exam because the day-to-day reality of each platform is different. Earning all three is a statement in itself. You're not an Apple admin who dabbles in Windows, or a Linux person who avoids desktops. You can run the whole floor.
+
+## A track for GitOps
+
+Alongside the platform certifications sit two GitOps credentials: Fleet GitOps level 1 and Fleet GitOps level 2. These aren't about a single operating system. They're about the operating model: policies, configuration, and software defined in YAML, reviewed in a pull request, and deployed through CI instead of clicked into a console.
+
+Level 1 establishes the fundamentals of the GitOps workflow. Level 2 goes deeper for the people who own the pipeline. Together, they certify a skill that increasingly separates modern device management teams from legacy ones: treating your fleet's posture as version-controlled, reviewable, reversible code.
+
+## The Fleet expert capstone
+
+The five core credentials aren't five things to pick between. They're a path. The three platform admin certifications and both GitOps levels are the prerequisites for the program's capstone: Fleet expert.
+
+Fleet expert is its own exam, and you can only take it once you hold all five core credentials. That gate is the point. The exam isn't a shortcut around the platform and GitOps work. It's proof that you can bring all of it together and operate an entire cross-platform fleet, from enrollment to GitOps pipeline.
+
+## Learn it in the room
+
+Every credential on the path to Fleet expert is earned in an in-person workshop. That's a deliberate choice. Running a real fleet is hands-on work, so the training is too: instructor-led, live, and built around doing the task rather than reading about it.
+
+It also means the certification measures something real. You don't pass by memorizing menu paths. You pass by demonstrating, in the room, that you can produce the result in Fleet.
+
+## Electives you can add all year
+
+The core path is where Fleet expert lives, but it isn't the whole program. Fleet is also rolling out self-paced elective certifications throughout the year. Each one goes deep on a specific way people run and build on Fleet.
+
+The first two are Fleet self-managed, for teams running Fleet in their own infrastructure rather than the cloud, and Developing with the Fleet API, for the people writing automation and integrations on top of Fleet. Electives work differently from the core workshops: you study on your own schedule, then book time to validate the outcome. That makes them easy to add whenever you're ready, and the list will keep growing.
+
+## August is the start, not the finish
+
+The core workshops land first, and the electives follow through the year. If cross-platform, managed-as-code device work is what you already do, this is the credential that matches it.
+
+---
+*Fleet certification opens in August. Keep an eye on the [Fleet workshops page](https://fleetdm.com/workshops) for dates and how to sign up.*
+
+<meta name="articleTitle" value="Make your cross-platform skills official with Fleet certification">
+<meta name="authorFullName" value="Dave Siederer">
+<meta name="authorGitHubUsername" value="ds0x">
+<meta name="publishedOn" value="2026-07-09">
+<meta name="category" value="articles">
+<meta name="description" value="Fleet's updated certification program launches in August: Apple, Windows, Linux, and GitOps workshops that lead to the Fleet expert credential.">