Nils-Ole Lund was a docent at the Department of Architecture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology 1963–65. In 1965 he became professor at the School of Architecture in Aarhus and served as rector of the school from 1972 to 1985. Lund was also guest professor at the School of Architecture at Washington University, Saint Louis, USA in 1976 and president of the European Association of Architectural Schools 1987–91.

Nils-Ole Lund was an architecture critic for Arkitekten, Arkitektur og Byggekunst, chairman of the editorial board for Arkitekten from 1989, and member of the planning council for higher education. He wrote a number of books on Scandinavian architectural tradition and its architects and on architectural theory.