 After his PhD, Davies subsequently held an ICI Postdoctoral Fellowship working with Malcolm Green (1975-1977) and a NATO Fellowship working with Derek Barton (1977-1978) before joining the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) at Gif-sur-Yvette as Attaché de Recherche working with Hugh Felkin.In 1980 he returned to Oxford to take up a University Lectureship in Chemistry.Whilst remaining an active academic, in 1991 he founded Oxford Asymmetry Ltd (an asymmetric synthesis company) as sole investor.