Professionally, Beckford has spent his career in academia, beginning in 1999 as a research fellow at Birmingham University, then becoming a lecturer in African Diasporan Religions & Cultures. For two years he was Reader in Black Theology and Popular Culture at Oxford Brookes University and then a visiting Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London. Since October 2019, Beckford has been Professor of Black Theology at The Queen's Foundation, having rejoined the institution from Canterbury Christ Church University, where he was Professor of Theology and Culture in the African Diaspora.