Nominated in February 2009, Harris was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate in May 2009, and became acting Secretary of Labor for six months following the resignation of Hilda Solis in January 2013.

[2] After leaving the Obama administration, Harris has been a visiting professor at the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs and a distinguished scholar at Cornell University's School of Industrial & Labor Relations,[3] and a lawyer in Washington, D.C.[4] Harris also served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Labor and the Economy and deputy director of the National Economic Council during the Biden administration until July 2022.

[5] Harris currently serves on boards of directors, advising early stage companies, and works as a professor of the practice in law and policy at Northeastern University.

[6][7] His father is the late Dr. Jonathan Harris, a high school teacher and author of young adult non-fiction books.

[13] Harris served as a Senior Fellow of the Life Without Limits Project of the United Cerebral Palsy Association[14] and a member of Georgetown University Law School's Workplace Flexibility 2010 National Advisory Commission[15][16] Harris served as a member of the Agency Review Working Group of the Obama-Biden Transition Team with responsibility for the federal government's transportation, labor, and education agencies.