[1][2] Gordon joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1979 and worked in the European Commission Department.
[3] He later served as First Secretary for the British Delegation to the Conference of Disarmament in Geneva from 1983 to 1988, before becoming the Head of Finance for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the United Nations from 1988 to 1989, First Secretary to Nairobi from 1990 to 1992 and Head of Crime, Drugs and Terrorism Department for the FCO.
[4] Upon retiring from the Foreign Office in 2009 he became the European Strategy Advisor for the Kent Police.
For his ambassador work he was appointed CMG in 1999,[5][6] and CVO in 2007 when Queen Elizabeth II visited Uganda for a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
[7] In 2012 Gordon stated that he would be standing in the England and Wales Police and Crime Commissioner elections for the Conservative Party nomination to represent Kent as its Police Commissioner.