His career started when he played guitar in the Scottish band Josef K. They released a string of singles and an album, The Only Fun in Town, on Postcard Records in the early 1980s.
After the demise of Josef K, Ross joined Edwyn Collins in the group Orange Juice, playing and writing songs for both the Rip it Up and Texas Fever albums.
After Orange Juice, Ross joined Roddy Frame in Aztec Camera as the second guitarist, and recorded and toured the Mark Knopfler-produced Knife album.
In the mid-1980s and throughout the 1990s, Ross worked with many artists such as former Josef K bandmate Paul Haig, Momus, Edwyn Collins, Dave Graney and The Coral Snakes, Blancmange and Barry Adamson (ex-Magazine and The Bad Seeds).
He has also worked in various one-off projects including The Lonely Crowd with bassist Billy Buckley (his brother-in-law), drummer Chris McArthur and New York songwriter Spike Priggen.