After completing his D.Phil. at SPRU (Sussex), Simon Collinson joined the University of Edinburgh as a Senior Research Fellow and Assistant Director of the Japanese-European Technology Studies (JETS) institute in 1991. During this period he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP) in Tokyo (in 1997), on a joint grant from the UK Royal Society and the Japanese Science and Technology Agency. Seven years later he joined Edinburgh University Management School, as a Senior Lecturer teaching International Business.

In 2000 Simon joined Warwick Business School (WBS) and became Academic Director of the full-time MBA progamme and subsequently Associate Dean (MBAs). In 2004 he was a Visiting Professor at the Kelley School of Business at the University of Indiana, working with Alan Rugman, and a visiting Senior Research Fellow at the AGSM (NSW and Sydney). In 2005 he was awarded the Lead Ghoshal Fellowship at AIM (the Advanced Institute of Management), jointly funded by the ESRC and the EPSRC. This supported a large-scale survey of western multinational firms in China, focused on innovation capability development in IJVs and collaborative projects. He was a member of the Board of Directors for AIM until the end of the AIM programme in December 2011. During this period he was also Head of the Marketing and Strategy group at WBS, before moving into the role of Deputy Dean.

In 2011 Simon was appointed Guangbiao Guest Professor of Zhejiang University and became a member of the Council of the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council). He also joined the Council of the British Academy of Management (BAM). In October 2011 Simon was appointed to a Chair in International Business and Innovation at Henley Business School, University of Reading and joined Birmingham Business School as Dean in October 2012.