Riaz Mohammad Khan holds a master's degree in mathematics and a B.A.

Prior to joining Pakistan's Foreign Service in 1969, Khan taught quantum physics from 1965 to 1969 as assistant professor in the Mathematics Department at Punjab University, Lahore.

He then served seven years at Pakistan's Mission to the United Nations in New York City from 1979 to 1986.

Khan remained director general of Afghanistan and Soviet affairs at the Foreign Office, during which time he took a sabbatical to serve as a diplomat-in-residence at Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy.

After his retirement from the Foreign Service, he spent a year as a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.