Meade worked at the National Commission of the Retirement Savings System (Consar) and at the Institute for the Protection of Bank Savings (IPAB).
Meade was Secretary of the Treasury on two occasions—first with Felipe Calderón and then with Enrique Peña Nieto—, he was also head of Energy (from January to September 2011), headed the Ministry of Social Development (from August 2015 to September 2016) and headed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (from December 2012 to August 2015).
José Antonio Meade competed in the 2018 presidential election as the standard bearer of the PRI and thus became the first citizen candidate without membership in the tricolor party.
