He had served as the Cabinet Minister of Law and Order and Southern Development (2015-2018); Youth Affairs and Southern Development (2019-2019); Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and Member of Parliament for Matara District.

Ratnayaka was born to a political family from Deniyaya, where his uncle Victor Ratnayake, MBE was a notable legislator.

[1] After graduating he worked as a financial analyst at Central Finance Company and joined HSBC Sri Lanka going on to become a credit operations manager.

[1] He entered politics in 1999, having been elected as a member of the Southern Provincial Council.

From January 2015 to September 2015 he served as the chief of staff to the prime minister until he was elected to parliament in 2015 and appointed as a Cabinet minister of Law and Order in the Good Governance Government.