He served as the Provincial Governor of Jiangxi, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces, Viceroy of Huguang and Liangjiang, and as a member of the Grand Council.

He sat for the palace-level imperial examination in 1775 and obtained the position of a tong jinshi chushen (third class graduate).

In July 1825, Sun Yuting was restored to the civil service as a bianxiu (編修; compiler and editor) in the Hanlin Academy under the xiuzhi (休致) system for retired officials.

During his tenure as Provincial Governor of Guangdong, Sun Yuting put down the Shantou clan fights and tried to eliminate the practice of bribing pirates into submitting to the government.

He served as the Magistrate (知縣) of Qiantang County (錢塘縣; now part of Hangzhou) and was a friend of the painter Zheng Xie.