Essa is from Doha, Qatar. He graduated with Architectural Engineering in the US in 1982. He joined the Technical Office of H.H.The Amir of the State of Qatar in supervision and project management for special projects.  He was Senior Engineer for building improvement and evaluation at Qatar National Bank. Then appointed as the Director of Building Engineering Department at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture where he became the Assistant Undersecretary for Engineering Affairs at the same ministry. He joined Tatweer in July 2006