[5] In 2020, prime minister Pedro Sánchez appointed him director of Spain's National Office for Foresight and Strategy with the mandate of "analyzing future trends and preparing the country to face them.

[8] In this role, he was one of the main architects of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, and Spain's lead negotiator for the second von der Leyen Commission.

[10] In 2024, Pedro Sánchez appointed Rubio his Chief of Staff and first Secretary of State praising "his integrity, technical rigour and cross-cutting vision.

"[11] Rubio undertook a deep reform of La Moncloa, the Prime Minister's Office headquarters, creating new directorates-general and incorporating numerous scholars of his generation.

His research aims to understand how societies change over time, paying special attention to issues such as causality and contingency, path dependencies, megatrends, black swans, and the effects of technological innovation and geopolitical transformations.