Wilkinson's career began in the study of electroweak physics on the DELPHI experiment, taking part in the measurement of the mass and width of the Z boson, and the mass of the W boson. Wilkinson currently specialises in CP-violation through measurements of processes involving the decays of hadrons containing beauty or charm quarks. He is a founding member and former spokesperson of the LHCb experiment on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.