Mohan Kanda started his career with State Bank of India as an Officer. After becoming an IAS officer he began working with the Government of Andhra Pradesh. He was also Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India and served as Vice Chairman, National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA). He worked as a Secretary in the Union Ministry of Agriculture.
He is a member of the steering committee on Agriculture and Allied Sectors for the formulation of the 12th Five Year Plan (2012–17) for Planning commission.
He was made head of a committee that would look into the problems faced by the Coastal Andhra riots in declaring a crop holiday.
He is working as senior faculty for Ethics, Disaster Management, Environment and general English in Dr. Lakshmaiah’s Spark Learning Solutions.