Hoffmann's academic positions include tutor in Greek at Keble College (1980–1983) and Senior Scholar at St Cross College, Oxford. He was the Wissenschaftlicher Assistant in Patristics and Classical Studies at the University of Heidelberg, the Campbell Professor of Religion and Human Values at Wells College until 2006 and Distinguished Scholar at Goddard College in 2009. He has taught at Cal State Sacramento, the American University of Beirut and various universities in Africa (Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Botswana), the Middle East, the Pacific (Australia and Papua New Guinea) and South Asia, most recently as Visiting Professor of History at LUMS in Lahore, Pakistan and as Professor of Historical Linguistics at the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Hoffmann has also served as special lecturer in Liberal Arts at the New England Conservatory in Boston