After his graduation in 2000, Phillips worked for Jaguar as corporate hospitality manager and then for Williams racing team, where he was sponsorship accounts manager. In 2004, while working for Williams, Phillips was in a van in China with three other employees when the van was hit by a car. Phillips was uninjured. He left Williams in September 2005, for a job as a manager at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh. In March 2012, he left RBS to take on a role as managing director at SEL UK.