Amit Kaushik joined the Indian Railways as a civil servant in 1987 after obtaining a postgraduate degree in Economics from the Panjab University Chandigarh. Over the course of the twenty years he spent in the service, he held a variety of challenging assignments both in the Railways and outside, and worked in varied areas including administration, investment appraisal, financial analysis, project management and industrial relations.

From 2001-2006, Amit was Director, Elementary Education, in the Ministry of HRD, Government of India, where he was associated with the development and implementation of various policies related to Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Among other things, he worked closely on the 2005 draft of the Right to Education Bill, based on which The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, has recently been passed.

He has been a consultant to UNESCO Paris, Nigeria, Iraq and Lebanon, as well as to UNICEF Iraq, working with them from time to time on assignments related to literacy, planning for Education for All, non-formal education and accelerated learning.

In 2007, Amit took early retirement from the civil service to work in the private sector. He has been Director of the SRF Foundation, running the well-known Shri Ram Schools in Delhi, as well as Chief Executive Officer of Shri Educare Pvt Ltd, a newly incorporated education services provider. Subsequently he was Chief Operating Officer of the Pratham Education Foundation.

He is currently Managing Director of Educomp Infrastructure and School Management Ltd (EISML), a subsidiary company of Educomp Solutions Ltd, India's largest publicly traded private education company.