[2][3] Hochstein has worked in the U.S. Congress, has testified before congressional panels[2] and has served in the Barack Obama administration under Secretaries of State Clinton and Kerry.

[5] In March 2017, he joined Tellurian, a private Houston-based LNG company, where he served as senior vice president marketing until his departure in September 2020.

Hochstein is a former member of the supervisory board of Ukrainian Naftogaz, from which he resigned in October 2020[7] by writing an opinion piece[8] that highlighted the return of sabotage in the form of corrupt forces.

[18][19][20] He is married to Julie Rae Ringel; they have four children together[21] and live in Washington D.C. His wife works for the Georgetown University Continuing Education School in the executive leadership coaching program.

Hochstein first served as the principal Democratic staff person on the Economic Policy, Trade & Environment Subcommittee where he oversaw work authorizing Ex-Im Bank, OPIC and USTDA, as well as drafting legislation on export controls and trade-related multilateral organizations and regimes.

In his book Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Coll recounts, that while Hochstein initially was uncomfortable with the Equatorial Guinea account,[33] he assisted in the development of a "road map" of political changes together with the U.S. National Security Council, that Equatorial Guinea would have to implement in order to display their political sincerity to change and to improve relations with the United States.

The outlines involved prisoner releases, substantial public investments in health care and education and Hochstein coordinated the communication of these points with and between Equatorial Guinea's leadership and the State Department.

[40] Serving as deputy to Special Envoy Carlos Pascual, Hochstein worked to help Ukraine find new supplies of natural gas in the wake of the 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea.

[5] On August 1, 2014, Hochstein succeeded Carlos Pascual[42] as acting Special Envoy and Coordinator of International Energy Affairs, and was permanently appointed to the position later in the year[41] by Secretary Kerry.

[citation needed] Hochstein encouraged European countries to find new oil, gas, coal, and nuclear sources, to alleviate their dependence on Russian energy.

[49] Hochstein has also been involved in the U.S. front against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, specifically cutting their oil revenues by disrupting their production lines.

[50] Hochstein oversaw the U.S. efforts to cripple Islamic State's energy business by weakening oil trade between ISIS, the Syrian government and other parties.

"[41] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited Hochstein's work as helping to provide an incentive for the renewed relationship between Israel and Turkey.

[64][65] On October 8, 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Hochstein to be the assistant secretary of state for energy resources, the official chief position for the bureau.

[74] He also was involved in discussing and mapping out details of the Southern Gas Corridor project generally[74] and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline with Greece specifically.

The State Department declined to comment on whether Hochstein formerly held Israeli citizenship and renounced it, a practice that dual citizens sometimes engage in in order to take on more sensitive positions in the US government.

In 2022, Hochstein "helped shape" the White House effort to reduce gas prices during the height of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,[80] and throughout 2022 often traveled with Biden to overseas meetings.

"[80] The deal resolved a decades-long dispute between Israel and Lebanon surrounding the two countries' maritime border and the gas fields located there.

[3] He also leads Biden's Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, which launched at the 2022 G7 summit with the aim of coordinating the international supply chain of clean energy.

[86] The attack came just a day after Hochstein visited Israel and warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against provoking a major escalation in Lebanon.

[91][92][93][94] Due to environmental and economic considerations, the Biden administration and the subject have opposed the proposed EastMed pipeline in favor of an Egyptian route.

It was reported that as early as May 2019 Hochstein alerted the National Security Council staff that Rudy Giuliani and Gordon Sondland's pressure tactics were rattling Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.