Returning home and granting Hungarian citizenship in 1990, Szapáry was senior resident representative of the International Monetary Fund in Hungary (1990–1993).

Other positions include alternate governor for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (1994–1995); president of the Board of Directors for the International Training Centre for Bankers in Budapest (1993–2001); board member of the Budapest Commodity Exchange (1997–2001); president of the Foundation for Enterprise Promotion for the Hungarian province of Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok (1995–99); member of the Economic and Financial Committee of the European Commission and of the European Central Bank’s International Relations Committee (2004–07); and member of the Hungarian Economic Social Council (2004–07).

From July 2010 to January 2011, Szapáry was chief economic policy advisor to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Currently he is Chief Adviser to the Governor of the Hungarian National Bank and honorary professor at Corvinus University of Budapest.

Szapáry married biologist Daniéle Héléne Lucienne Winckelmans (born 1939 in Belgian Congo) in Hoboken, Antwerp on 21 August 1965.

The elder son Philippe Olivier (born 1967) obtained an MD degree from the University of Chicago and works at a pharmaceutical company in Philadelphia.