[1][2][3][4] After leaving school, he completed his architecture intermediate year at the University of Otago and undertook work experience at the Ministry of Works, before completing his Bachelor of Architecture degree at the University of Auckland.

[1][6][7][8] From 1979 to 1983, Salmond was a senior architect at Gillespie, Newman, West and Pearce, where he worked on projects including Mount Albert Library and a retirement centre at Te Kauwhata.

[9] The completion of his master's thesis coincided with a period of sabbatical leave for his wife in England, and so he lived and worked in that country with his family for a time.

His first major project was the restoration of the Auckland synagogue (now University House), which received a New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) national award.

[1][9] From 1990, he was involved as a heritage architect at Auckland War Memorial Museum, culminating in the redevelopment of the museum's south atrium, completed in 2020 (in association with Jasmax, fjmt and Design Tribe Architects), which won the Inside: Public Buildings Award at the 2022 World Architecture Festival.