Jan Egeland became the director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) on 1 September 2007. NUPI is a research institute under the Ministry of Research and Education, but operates as an independent, non-political instance in all its professional activities. The Director is responsible for the daily management and development of NUPI's activities.

His research experience is mainly from the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO), where he was a researcher and a scientific assistant. He has held several positions with the Norwegian Red Cross and served as the organisation's Secretary-General in 2002-2003. Egeland was a State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Prime Ministers Gro H. Brundtland and Thorbjørn Jagland 1992-1997.

From 2003 to 2006, Egeland was UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and in March 2007 he was appointed UN Emergency Relief Coordinator. He has been engaged in a number of peace processes, i.a. in Colombia, Guatemala and the Middle East.