He received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in applied mathematics from Harvard University (1975) and a Master's degree (MS) and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in computer science (1977, 1980).

He then worked as an assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University and a compiler implementer at Tartan Laboratories.

In addition to specifications of the language Java, Steele's work at Sun Microsystems has included research in parallel algorithms, implementation strategies, and architecture and software support.

Steele and Samuel P. Harbison wrote C: A Reference Manual, (Prentice-Hall, 1984; ISBN 0-13-110016-5), to provide a precise description of the language C, which Tartan Laboratories was trying to implement on a wide range of systems.

Steele released a greatly expanded second edition in 1990, (1029 pages) which documented a near-final version of the ANSI standard.

[2] Steele, along with Charles H. Koelbel, David B. Loveman, Robert S. Schreiber, and Mary E. Zosel wrote The High Performance Fortran Handbook (MIT Press, 1994; ISBN 0-262-11185-3).

Under the pseudonym Great Quux,[6] which was an old student nickname at the Boston Latin School and MIT, he has published light verse and "Crunchly" cartoons; a few of the latter appeared in The New Hacker's Dictionary.