Nagendra began his engineering career in 1982 as an electronics technician at Van-West Clinic, Sri Lanka and then worked as an electrical technician in New Zealand. Later he joined the Biomedical Engineering Services, University of Auckland. He worked with medical researchers to develop a data acquisition system to monitor calcium levels on heart muscles. During this three-year period, he also serviced and maintained medical equipment. He then moved to Singapore to take on the role of lecturer at Singapore Polytechnic. He was appointed the program manager for the Biomedical Engineering option for two diploma programs, and chairman of the department course management team for the Specialist Diploma in Biomedical Engineering program. At Singapore Polytechnic he taught electronics, medical instrumentation and industrial automation courses. He also carried out and published numerous research works. Nagendra received many ‘Excellence in R&D’ awards for his pioneering research work in biomedical instrumentation and computerised structural simulation.
In 2005, he returned to New Zealand and joined a multi-national company, specialising in baggage handling systems. He worked on automation systems for a few international airports in New Zealand and two major parcel handling systems for Australia Post in Australia. He then joined another multi-national company, specialising in manufacture of fruit sorting/packaging solutions. He worked on a few turn-key automation projects in Australia, New Zealand and US.
In 2010 he moved to Australia to take on the role of vocational education and training lecturer at Charles Darwin University. He trained apprentices in certificate III in Electrotechnology Electrician, Electronics and Communications. He then moved to Perth to take on the role of senior lecturer / deputy dean at Engineering Institute of Technology. He worked on developing online engineering courses at advanced diploma level to Master of Engineering levels.
He then re-joined Charles Darwin University in 2016 to train apprentices in certificate III in Instrumentation and Control, certificate III in Electrotechnology Electrician and conduct research in power quality and smart abode.
In 2012, he started Yarl Technologies, an engineering consultancy that focuses on providing simple low-cost solutions for its clients. His interests are in crafting musical instruments, medical instrumentation, embedded systems and industrial automation.