After graduating from RPI in 1908 he immediately set up his own architectural practice. During WWI he worked in Moscow. From 1916 to 1918 he was a city architect of Sevastopol, and in 1919 he worked in Marseilles. In 1920, he started to work in the diplomatic service. He was an ambassador of Latvia to several European countries and a Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia. In 1941, he was deported to Russia where he was shot dead. About 20 multi-storey masonry residential buildings in Riga as well as several buildings in other cities and rural areas of Latvia were built to Ņukša’s designs. He preferred to work in the manner of Perpendicular Art Nouveau and Neoclassicism.