Ehsani has had extensive experience working on international regional development projects. He has worked as a regional planner in Iran on the post-war reconstruction of the Khuzestan province, and as a consultant and adviser to the first elected City Council of Tehran, and the Parliament Research Center on rural development projects. He has taught at the University of Illinois in Chicago and at the Central European University in Budapest.

His fields of interest include urban geography, critical social theory, and the political economy of development projects and their social and environmental repercussions. Currently he is working on a social history and geography of the oil industry in the Middle East. He has also written extensively on the domestic and international politics of contemporary Iran. He is a regular media commentator and analyst on Iranian politics.

Currently he is completing a book titled Oil and Society in Iran; Abadan and Urban Modernity in 20th Century (Brill Publishers).