Heist plot structure for beginner novelists

As a neurodivergent writer tackling my first heist novel, I recently bit off more than I could chew. For my story set in the San Francisco Bay Area, I'm writing several heists with increasingly higher stakes...so tell me why I decided to open this series by casually breaking into the nation's highest-security prison? Not to mention I've never written a single con job in my life.

Yeah, it would start this project off with a bang, but where would I go from there? I fumbled around with this scene for days, encouraged by how many fun opportunities there were for characters to shine, but no matter where I took it or how good I thought the writing was, the first chapter would have completely unmoored the pacing. So, with a heavy heart, I moved the prison break scene closer to the end of the story, where I know the stakes will be sky-high with lives on the line.

What do you think makes for the best opening scene? Veteran writers seem to agree that a good heist plot structure for beginner novelists would have the following elements: