Franz Baumann spent most of his professional life as a United Nations official. His last assignment was as Special Adviser on Environment and Peace Operations with the rank of Assistant Secretary-General.

From 2017 to 2021, he was a Visiting Research Professor at New York University. Baumann started his career at the European Parliament in Luxembourg in 1976 before transferring to the European Commission in Brussels and eventually joining Siemens in Munich.

In 1980 he began his career with the United Nations where, in over three decades, he served in four cities on three continents in a variety of functions. In 2009, he was appointed as Assistant Secretary-General. His doctorate in Political Science (African Studies) was obtained from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

He is a Vice President of the Academic Council on the United Nations System, an Executive Editor of Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development and a member of the Board of Advisers of the Centre for United Nations Studies at the University of Buckingham and of the Nigerian Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation (IGET).