[8] Mr Gopinathan started his career with Freescale Semiconductor as a VLSI design engineer in Noida and worked for four years before resigning to prepare for the Indian Administrative Services.

[9] Joining the Indian Administrative Service in 2012 in the AGMUT Cadre, the officer first came to limelight for his rather unusual letter to the then State Bank of India chairperson requesting an ATM in the remote subdivision of Hnahthial, in Mizoram.

[15][16][17] Project Himna - MADAT, an early intervention and awareness program against drugs usage among upper primary and high-school going students started in Aizawl District during Mr Gopinathan's tenure was later adopted and scaled up across Mizoram considering the high incidence of substance abuse in the state.

[22][23][24] Mr Kannan Gopinathan, as a secretary of key departments in Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, was instrumental in transforming a loss-making government electricity distribution firm into a profit-making one and completion of two decade delayed ring road project in Silvassa.

[26] After his resignation, he has been vocal on the importance of raising questions in a democracy, the threat of perceived victimhood among the majority [27][28] and on the violation of fundamental rights in Jammu and Kashmir.