After obtaining his post-graduate degree in Biochemistry from the Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore, Govindaraj joined the CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, as a Research Fellow and got training in the field of genomics. Subsequently, he completed his Ph.D. from the Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, and his Ph.D. work focussed on delineating mitochondrial dysfunction and nuclear gene variations in cardiomyopathy. He joined the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, as a postdoctoral fellow, funded by DBT, and later obtained SERB-National postdoctoral fellowship, GoI. His post-doc work at the Neuromuscular Laboratory, Neurobiology Research Centre (NBRC), NIMHANS, focused on mitochondrial genomics in neuromuscular disorders.

Recently, Govindaraj joined the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD), Hyderabad, as a Staff Scientist-IV. His group is now focussing on "Human Molecular Genetics" with a specific aim to investigate the mitochondrial dysfunction in human health and disease.