Jakob Nordström obtained his Master of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics at Stockholm University in 2001, and his PhD degree in Computer Science at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in 2008. During 2008-2010 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), after which he returned to KTH in 2011, where he became an associate professor and received his Docent degree (habilitation) in 2015. In 2019 he moved to the University of Copenhagen, where he is now a full professor, and since 2020 he also has a part-time affiliation with Lund University.

In 2006 Jakob Nordström received the best student paper award at 38th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC '06), and his PhD thesis received the Ackermann Award 2009 for "outstanding dissertations in Logic in Computer Science" from the European Association for Computer Science Logic. Since 2018 he is a member of the Young Academy of Sweden. His current research is mainly funded by grants from the Independent Research Fund Denmark and the Swedish Research Council.

In 1997-1998, Jakob Nordström served as a military interpreter at the Swedish Armed Forces Language Institute (Försvarets tolkskola), graduating as the best student of the 1998 class. In parallel with his studies and later his research, he worked for a number of years as a Russian interpreter, engaged among others for His Majesty the King of Sweden and the Swedish Prime Minister. He also has a Diploma in Choir Conducting with extended Music Theory from the Tallinn Music Upper Secondary School, Estonia. During the period 1994-1999, he was the artistic director of Collegium Vocale Stockholm, a vocal ensemble performing mainly Renaissance and Baroque music.