David Murray initially read Engineering Science at Cambridge. He later qualified in Medicine and trained at the Universities of Cambridge, London and Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and has a doctorate from the University of Cambridge. He was appointed as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in 1993, and subsequently as Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery by the University of Oxford. He operates at both the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre and the Manor Hospital in Oxford.

In addition to being a Designer Surgeon of the Oxford Knee, David Murray runs a University Research Group undertaking biomechanical and clinical studies related to the knee and hip. They have made major contributions to the understanding of knee kinematics, both in normal and replaced joints, and to the development of methods to predict and prevent failure in joint replacements. He has published extensively and is regularly invited to speak Knee Meetings around the world.

David Murray developed the patient-based Oxford Hip and Oxford Knee Scores which measure the outcome of joint replacements. The scores have been adopted worldwide and translated into many languages. He also leads the largest multi centre randomised controlled study of knee replacements in the UK (KAT) in collaboration with the Universities of Aberdeen and, previously, Dundee.