As a consultant, Hultin worked in a variety of areas, including technology, defense, health care, finance, and the environment.

President of the United States Bill Clinton nominated Hultin as Under Secretary of the Navy on September 16, 1997.

In 2003, during the Iraq War, Hultin served as an on-air military expert for WNBC in New York City.

In 2004, he authored a much cited study, Securing the Port of New York and New Jersey: Network-centric Operations Applied to the Campaign against Terrorism.

One of Hultin's first steps as the new president was to embrace a focus on "i-squared-e" – invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship – to encourage educated risk-taking among faculty and students.

In addition to integrating these skills into academics, NYU-Poly under Hultin collaborated with city and state governments and private industry to launch 3 business incubators and economic initiatives, including the NYC Media Lab.

Hultin is a board director of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, BritishAmerican Business, Inc. (BABI), the New York City Building Congress, the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce and is a director of the New York Council of the Navy League of the United States.