Prior to joining MIT, Kirilenko spent at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) where he served as chief economist. Kirilenko has been very active in engaging with other regulatory agencies, the academic community, markets participants on key regulatory and policy matters.

He chaired the Subcommittee on Data Standardization and the Subcommittee on the Automated and High Frequency Trading. He also represented the CFTC at the Systemic Risk Committee and the Systemic Data Committee of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

In 2010, Kirilenko was the recipient of the CFTC Chairman's Award for Excellence (highest honor). Prior to joining the CFTC, Kirilenko spent twelve years at the International Monetary Fund working on global capital markets issues. His scholarly work has appeared in a number of journals and received multiple best-paper awards.