Meet Julia, Airport Security Consultant at NACO

More about my role in airport security

“What I really like about this role is that it combines the technical aspects of equipment with operational and human aspects. We have to think about how to prevent, but also how to cope with abrupt and negative events that could happen in case of a terroristic event. There’s a technical aspect involved such as the stability of the building, but also the human aspect: how would people react and where can people go to?’’

“In my role, I personally work frequently on checkpoint design, security zoning and access control. We think a lot about topics like: how do we make sure people go where they should go and not where they should not go? How do people behave in the terminal environment? And how can people move from A to Z in a secure way? There are a lot more security aspects I work on besides the touchpoints people logically think of,  like the security, customs, and border control. There are many aspects related to security, in this way I can learn a lot! It is a specialisation, but at the same time the topic is very broad to me.”

A community of NACO colleagues working on impactful projects

“I am part of a small team of airport security consultants. With the various background of my colleagues (mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering), I get inspired a lot. Nowadays, I work on a completely new airport in Poland which is a 2+ year project. I got the chance to visit the client in Poland. Very inspiring! Together with two other colleagues, I handle the security part of the project. Even though there are over 100 people working on this project, I can definitely see my contributions to the project. Think of new elements like secured doors, but also changes in terms of more efficient operations. At NACO, I feel colleagues are open to hear my vision and ideas. That makes me feel comfortable and valued. I connect well with the colleagues from NACO. It is an inspiring workplace! There are also activities organised on a frequent basis like doing sports or grabbing some drinks together. It feels like a community.’’

What makes NACO really stand out?

“In my opinion, NACO really stands out because we are a big player on the market. In most cases, we have a bigger footprint on an airport project than simply the security scope. Because of this, we work on large projects such as a whole terminal. This also makes my learning curve bigger; I can directly talk with my colleagues (like architects, civil engineers) working on other parts of the terminal. This unique aspect helps me a lot in my growth. The international aspect is also what I really like, I can get in touch with colleagues from, for example, South Africa, Poland, The Netherlands, and Sint Maarten.’’

Shaping my own job

“A last thing I am very happy about is that I can shape my job role the way I would love. In the beginning I missed the opportunity to use my programming skills in my job. I mentioned this to my manager and one week later I was in a tooling team and an AI team. In here, I could create tools to make work more efficient.’’