After graduating, he joined the United States Navy, serving on active duty as a judge advocate for three years, eighteen months of which were spent on the USS Hancock (CV-19) off the coast of Vietnam.

In this capacity, Lancaster was primarily responsible for policy development and advocacy for the Army Corps of Engineers before the Office of Management and Budget, the White House, and the Congress.

Lancaster sought to increase state and private funding for facilities, equipment, faculty salaries and instruction and to strengthen the system's essential role in workforce and economic development.

He focused particular efforts on increasing the role of community colleges in preparing "homegrown teachers" for public schools and in workforce training for biotechnology and other high–tech industries.

[4] In March 2008, Lancaster announced that in September he would be joining the largest law firm in Raleigh, North Carolina, Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan.

In February 2009, Lancaster joined Dawson & Associates in Washington, DC as a senior advisor on Federal transportation and environmental policy.

[6] Lancaster was made an Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2011, for his services to the people of Northern Ireland.