Simon qualified from the London Hospital Medical College in 1986. He was the first principal in general practice to be awarded a Wellcome Trust Health Services Research Fellowship during which he obtained training in clinical epidemiology and public health at the University of Southampton and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was appointed as a University Lecturer at the University of Cambridge in 1998. In 2005 Simon joined the MRC Epidemiology Unit as Assistant Director and was appointed Professor of General Practice in May 2013.
Simon is a Group Leader in the , Honorary Professor of General Medical Practice at Aarhus University Denmark, Honorary Doctor Ume氓 University Sweden, Honorary Consultant at Cambridge Uni/people/www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.ukversity Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Fellow of the and the
He undertakes two surgery sessions per week as an unpaid Assistant General Practitioner at a 7-partner, ~10,000 patient, in the centre of Cambridge.