In 2004, Donnelly was promoted to be Director-General for Economics (later, for Europe and Globalisation) in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 2008–2009 he went on secondment to UK telecoms regulator Ofcom, returning to the Cabinet Office to lead the Smarter Government white paper.
As of September 2015, Donnelly was paid a salary of between £180,000 and £184,999, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time.[5]
Donnelly led work to improve inclusion and gender balance across the senior civil service leadership in a range of departments. While permanent secretary of BIS he achieved gender balance across the senior team of 160 people, encouraging part-time working and job shares, by developing a new culture to encourage supportive team working. BIS was the first major department to achieve gender parity in its senior leadership.[6]
After leaving the civil service, in November 2017 he became a part-time senior adviser with Teneo,[7] which describes itself as "the global CEO advisory firm", providing advice to senior executives of large companies.[8] He left Teneo in spring 2019. Between 2017 and 2019, Donnelly was a visiting fellow at Hertford College, Oxford.[9]
In June 2019, Donelly was appointed president of Boeing Europe and managing director of Boeing UK and Ireland.[10] He retired from Boeing in October 2022. He is a non executive director of the National Audit Office.
Public persona after leaving the Civil Service
In February 2018, speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, he warned that Brexit would be "giving up a three-course meal… for the promise of a packet of crisps in the future."[11]