Butler's undergraduate degree is a BSc in geology from the
University of Bristol (2002). His Ph.D., in 2007, is from the
University of Cambridge. He then worked at the
London Natural History Museum, first as a postdoctoral research assistant (2006–2008), and then a NERC researcher co-investigator (2008–2009). From 2009-2011, he held a Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Fellowship at the GeoBio-Center, in
Munich, Germany, then Junior Research Group Leader, Emmy Noether Programme (DFG), at the same institution from 2011–2013. He then came to the University of Birmingham, first as a Birmingham Fellow (2013–2015), then a Senior Birmingham Fellow and Academic Keeper of its
Lapworth Museum of Geology (2015–2017). In 2017 he was appointed to a personal chair at Birmingham as Professor of Palaeobiology, adding to this the role of Director of Global Engagement, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham (2020–2022) and Director of Research & Knowledge Transfer, College of Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham (2022–to date). == Professional work ==