He currently works as Director Internationals Affairs at Worldwide Hospitals (WWH), a global healthcare company that offers flexible solutions that fill gaps in medical infrastructure.

Since 1987, Nooke had been a member of a church opposition group and got involved in the growing democracy movement in 1989, which led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

On 8 March 2006, Nooke was appointed as the Federal Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Since April 2010, Nooke has been serving as Personal Representative of the German Chancellor for Africa in the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), under the leadership of ministers Dirk Niebel (2009–2013) and Gerd Müller (since 2013).

[5][6] In the ensuing controversy, Nooke allegedly threatened to dismiss a non-tenured faculty member of the University of Hamburg,[7] Raja Kramer,[8] who had served as the voluntary head of a German association of Africa scientists (Fachverbands Afrikanistik).