He is currently a structural engineering partner in the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (SOM).

Baker was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 2011 for leadership in the development of innovative structures for high-rise buildings worldwide.

In 1981, he joined the architecture and engineering firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, LLP (SOM) in Chicago; he became a partner there in 1996.

Baker has collaborated with artists such as Jamie Carpenter (Raspberry Island-Schubert Club Band Shell, 2002), Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle (Gravity is a Force to be Reckoned With, 2010), Jaume Plensa (World Voices, 2010), and James Turrell (Roden Crater).

[7] On November 20, 2008, he received the Fazlur Khan Lifetime Achievement Medal from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.