Ingrid Lunt worked as a professional educational psychologist before joining the Institute of Education, University of London, in 1985. At the Institute of Education she was director of professional training for educational psychologists for 10 years, before becoming Professor of educational psychology, and Dean of the Doctoral School. She moved to the Department of Education at Oxford in 2005 where she was Director of Graduate Studies for 5 years, and Director of the new ESRC Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in the social sciences.