[8] Ogunnaike attended the University of Lagos for his bachelor's degree, graduating with First Class Honours in chemical engineering in 1976.
[9] Shortly after completing his undergraduate degree, Ogunnaike submitted lyrics for a competition to create a new national anthem for Nigeria.
He worked as a researcher for DuPont and was also a consultant to several companies including Gore, PPG Industries, and Corning Inc.[9] He joined the faculty of the University of Delaware in 2002 and was appointed to the William L. Friend Professorship of Chemical Engineering in 2008.
[11] His title became the William L. Friend Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering when the name of the department was changed in January 2012.
[14][15] Ogunnaike is the author and editor of several books, including Random phenomena : fundamentals of probability and statistics for engineers (2009) and Process dynamics, modeling and control (1994).