Professional Experience · OT/ICS Foundation
Accesso Services: Building Engineering & Critical Infrastructure Operations#
Before moving into cybersecurity consulting, I spent 4 years and 8 months as a building engineer with Accesso Services.
The role combined equipment monitoring, preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, work-order follow-through, contractor coordination, documentation, and operational continuity. It taught me what it means to be accountable for physical systems that people depend on every day.
This was not an OT cybersecurity role. It was hands-on facilities work that gave me a practical foundation for understanding availability, cyber-physical risk, maintenance constraints, and the importance of disciplined operations.
Public scope: This page restores useful technical depth while excluding the property address, facility dimensions, occupant information, access procedures, safety procedures, internal schedules, vendor-specific configurations, and identifiable project details.
What I Did#
My day-to-day work centered on keeping building equipment observable, maintained, documented, and available. The role required both hands-on work and coordination with others when an issue or maintenance activity crossed team boundaries.
My responsibilities included:
- completing routine equipment checks and recording operating readings
- performing preventive maintenance such as cleaning, filter work, belt replacement, and condition checks
- investigating work orders and reported equipment problems
- identifying abnormal conditions through observation, measurements, and comparison with expected operation
- completing routine corrective work within my role and escalating specialized repairs
- coordinating contractors during maintenance, service, and equipment replacement work
- documenting completed work, open items, readings, and follow-up needs
- confirming that equipment returned to expected operation after work was completed
- supporting continuity during planned maintenance and unexpected disruptions
The technical work mattered, but so did judgment. A useful response required understanding the symptoms, checking available evidence, deciding what could be handled safely, knowing when specialized support was needed, and following the issue through closure.
Equipment and Systems Experience#
HVAC and Air Handling#
Worked with air handlers, filters, belts, temperature checks, voltage and amperage readings, condition monitoring, and scheduled maintenance activities.
Hands-On Experience
Cooling and Water Systems#
Worked with cooling towers, chillers, chilled-water systems, filters, cleaning activities, operating checks, and related service coordination.
Hands-On Experience
Pumps and Mechanical Equipment#
Worked around zone pumps, motors, air compressors, filters, and other mechanical equipment requiring readings, inspection, routine maintenance, and follow-up.
Hands-On Experience
Electrical Equipment#
Performed general equipment and panel checks, captured basic electrical readings where appropriate, observed equipment condition, and supported planned specialist service.
Operational Support
Building Automation and Monitoring#
Used building automation and control interfaces, sensors, equipment status, and recorded readings to support monitoring and troubleshooting.
BMS / BAS Exposure
Work Orders and Operational Records#
Tracked reported issues, maintenance activity, troubleshooting notes, readings, follow-up tasks, and completion status through work-order and logging practices.
Documentation
Preventive Maintenance and Troubleshooting#
Preventive maintenance was one of the clearest lessons from the role. Reliability was not created during an incident; it was created through recurring checks, cleaning, readings, replacements, documentation, and follow-through before an issue became a disruption.
Troubleshooting often began with a simple question: what is different from normal? Answering it meant inspecting the equipment, checking readings, reviewing recent work, documenting observations, testing an appropriate corrective action, and validating the result.
From Issue to Closure#
The workflow was physical rather than cybersecurity-focused, but the operating discipline maps closely to the way I now think about ServiceNow Vulnerability Response.
Observe or Receive#
Identify an issue through a routine check, an equipment reading, a work order, or a reported symptom.
Assess#
Inspect the condition, gather available readings and context, and determine the likely impact and next step.
Act or Escalate#
Complete appropriate routine work or engage a qualified specialist when the task required deeper expertise.
Coordinate#
Communicate scope, timing, dependencies, status, and outstanding needs across the people involved.
Validate and Document#
Confirm expected operation, record what was done, and keep unresolved items visible until they were completed.
Contractor Coordination and Equipment Work#
Some maintenance and replacement work required specialized contractors. My role was to help translate the planned work into an orderly operational activity.
That included confirming the work scope, coordinating timing and dependencies, communicating relevant conditions, monitoring progress, documenting outstanding items, and verifying that follow-up occurred. I also supported broader equipment replacement and modernization activity without claiming responsibility for specialized design or installation work performed by others.
This experience taught me that technical changes succeed when ownership and communication are as clear as the technical scope. That lesson applies directly to cybersecurity implementations involving platform teams, application owners, security analysts, consultants, and third parties.
Continuity During Disruption#
I continued working in an essential on-site role during the COVID period. Building operations and maintenance still had to continue even when normal working patterns changed significantly.
That period reinforced several habits: prioritize what matters most, communicate clearly when conditions change, keep routine work from becoming invisible, document decisions, and maintain continuity without losing sight of safety or quality.
What the Experience Demonstrates#
How It Connects to OT/ICS and ServiceNow#
The experience gave me respect for the physical consequences of availability, maintenance, change, and recovery. It also taught me that operators need accurate information and practical options; a recommendation that ignores operating constraints is not a useful recommendation.
I remain careful about the evidence boundary: building engineering did not make me an OT security engineer. It did give me direct experience with cyber-physical operations and a credible reason to keep developing in OT/ICS security.
The ServiceNow connection is equally practical. Building work orders and cybersecurity findings are different, but both need:
- clear intake and context
- an accountable owner
- documented action
- visible status and escalation
- validation before closure
- evidence that the work was completed
Those habits now inform how I approach ServiceNow SecOps, Vulnerability Response, and security workflow design.
Public Evidence Boundary#
This case study intentionally excludes sensitive or identifying operational material. It does not publish the property address, facility dimensions, occupant information, access or key-control practices, safety procedures, internal schedules, restricted locations, vendor-specific configurations, diagrams, screenshots, or identifiable project details.
The purpose is to show the depth and relevance of the professional experience without turning a public portfolio into an operational reference.