In 1938, Norman-Walker followed in the footsteps of his parents to India and joined the Indian Civil Service. Throughout his ten-year-long career in the Indian government, he held various posts in different departments across a wide variety of fields. However, he left India in 1948, a year after its independence, and was briefly involved in industrial business in England. This did not last long as his experience as a civil servant in India allowed him to join the Colonial Administrative Service of the Colonial Office soon in 1949, of which he was posted to Nyasaland in Africa as an Administrative Officer, and was promoted an Assistant Secretary in 1953.