Stead was an Inspector of Ancient Monuments for the UK Government.
Along with Geoffrey Wainwright and Brian Davison, Stead was part of the 'Government digging team' working under the Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments.
[1] With the Inspectorate he undertook excavations at Winterton Roman villa,[2] Baldock,[3] and Verulamium[1] amongst many others.
He subsequently worked as the deputy keeper of the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities of the British Museum.
[6] In 1995 he was presented with a festschrift by former colleagues at the British Museum titled Sites and Sights of the Iron Age: Essays on Fieldwork and Museum Research Presented to Ian Mathieson Stead.