Deepak Sanan joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1982 and retired in 2017.  He was allocated to the state of Himachal Pradesh. During his career, he held various positions at the Centre and in his State. Over the years, he has been a consultant with various development organisations and has served on the staff of the World Bank.

Deepak Sanan is currently a Director of Landstack, a start up in the land governance space. His major responsibilities are assisting in research and capacity building. After his retirement, he has been associated with the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bengaluru, the Centre for Policy Research and the National Council of Applied Economic Research, Delhi after his retirement. At IIHS, he headed the Centre for Land Governance at its inception. With the NCAER, he led work on developing and bringing out a Land Records and Services Index covering all states and UTs of India in 2020 and 2021. At CPR, he advised on state capacity. Other major areas of his interest in public policy also include public finance, energy, water and sanitation. He has been invited to speak regularly on land governance and other subjects at various academic and training institutions including IIHS, IIMA, ISPP, Kautilya School of Public Policy, APU, LBSNSAA, NAAA, MSHIPA amongst others.

Deepak Sanan has published regularly on public policy issues in newspapers, academic journals and contributed chapters in relevant books on a variety of issues.

Deepak Sanan has completed an M.A. Politics (IR) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi in 1979 and a B.Com (Hons) from SRCC, Delhi University in 1977. He has been a recipient of the McNamara Fellowship of the World Bank in 1996.