Jonathan is an Associate Professor in the School of Population Health in the discipline of health promotion teaching political theory and policy advocacy. Jonathan's research is based at the Collaboration for Evidence, Research and Impact in Public Health (CERIPH), a multi-disciplinary applied research group focused on translational research and community partnerships. He is also a member of the management team for the Sexual Health and Blood-borne Virus Applied Research and Evaluation Network (SiREN) and an IUHPE Registered Health Promotion Practitioner. 

Jonathan also holds roles as Chair of Curtin School of Population Health's Board of Examiners, is a Regional Associate Editor (WA) of the Health Promotion Journal of Australia and was a Councillor with the City of Vincent from 2018-2025.

Prior to establishing an academic career, Jonathan worked in the community not-for-profit health sector at the WA AIDS Council (WAAC) in a range of roles including: peer education with same-sex attracted and gender diverse young people (through the Freedom Centre program); health promotion outreach with men who have sex with men at night venues and public sex environments (beats); coordinating the CyberReach online outreach program; and delivering blood-borne virus and sexual diversity training to youth services, police and prison officers. He subsequently also sat on the WAAC Board for nine years including as Chairperson from 2014-2015.

Jonathan commenced at Curtin in 2006 to coordinate the development and randomised controlled trial of an online alcohol intervention (THRIVE) that was the topic of his PhD. He subsequently worked on the My-Peer project (2009-2010) which generated an online toolkit to support agencies to implement and evaluate peer-based mental health programs for young people.

During 2009 and 2010 Jonathan was also the Executive Officer for the WA Centre for Public Health where he oversaw the development of strategic plans for tertiary public health education in WA. He also coordinated from 2010 to 2015 a state-wide scholarship program for new graduates and Aboriginal health workers to build health promotion workforce capacity on behalf of the Australian Health Promotion Association.

From 2018 to 2020 Jonathan took a secondment from his academic position to lead the Western Australian Division of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), a trade union that brings Australian higher education workers together to protect staff working conditions and promote a quality higher education system.