He was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire for eight months in 1517, serving from January 30 until his death on September 13.

In 1511, he became a vizier in the divan (the Ottoman government) and the beylerbey (top provincial administrator) of the Anatolia Eyalet.

After the Ottoman victory in the Battle of Marj Dabiq in 1516, Yunus Pasha, with Ottoman troops under his command, mobilized his forces and entered the (modern Syrian) city of Aleppo, from there invading the cities of Hama, Homs, and Damascus in rapid succession.

After attaining these double positions, Yunus Pasha allegedly set up a syndicate of bribery and extortion.

[2] It is alleged that sultan Selim I had Yunus Pasha executed for insulting his governorship successor Hayır Bey's Circassian ethnicity after bitterness of losing his governorship to him despite Yunus Pasha being the one who had conquered Egypt for the Ottoman Empire.