Elnur Soltanov was born in Mingachevir in 1974. During 1995-2003 he earned Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in International Relations at the Middle East Technical University in Türkiye.

In the period 2000-2003 he worked as a researcher at the Centre for Eurasian Strategic Studies in Türkiye, and then he completed a PhD on Political Sciences at Texas Tech University (USA) in 2003-2009.

He was engaged in pedagogical activities at Texas Tech University, Slippery Rock University and Truman State University in 2004-2009. In 2009-2018 he worked at ADA University as Senior Teacher, Director of the Caspian Energy and Environment Centre, and was Dean at the School of Public and International Relations. Since 2018, he has been serving as Deputy Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

By the Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan of the 23rd of January 2021 he was appointed a Member of the Supervisory Board of SOCAR.