Simon Nuttall graduated from St. John's College Oxford in 1963 with a M.A. Degree (Literae Humaniores). He began his professional career in the British Foreign Office from 1963 to 1971, holding positions in Beirut, Abu Dhabi and Kinshasa. From there he went to the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, working in the Office of the Clerk of the Assembly. On the United Kingdom's accession to the EEC in 1973, Nuttall joined the European Commission in Brussels. He was initially appointed to the Office of the Clerk of the Commission and, in 1981, became European Correspondent for European Political Cooperation, a post he held until 1988 when he became Director for relations with the Far East (essentially trade policy with Japan, China, and Korea). He took early retirement in 1995 to concentrate on his academic work. His professional experience within the institutions gave him a huge wealth of knowledge on European-related issues in his academic positions.
On his retirement, he was appointed Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges, and in 1997, became a member of its Academic Council. During the same period, he was Visiting Fellow of the Centre for International Studies at the London School of Economics and, in 1996, was appointed Senior Research Fellow with the Federal Trust, London