Dušan Navrátil graduated from the University of Technology in Brno. He worked in the research of building construction physics, namely on modeling of heat transfer. After 1989 Navrátil started a city chapter of Civic Democratic Alliance in Brno. From 1996 to 1998, he served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies in the Parliament of the Czech Republic, and was Chairman of the Chamber Commission on Oversight over the work of Military Intelligence. Navrátil also served on the Chamber Committee on Security and Defence.
In 2006, Navrátil was appointed the Director of the National Security Authority (NSA). He previously served as Deputy Director of NSA and Security Information Service.
In 2011, Navrátil initiated preparations of the law on national cybersecurity and helped manage foundation of National Centre of Cybersecurity (NCKB). In 2017 NSA was commissioned by the Government of PM Bohuslav Sobotka to prepare works on a new cybersecurity agency. The following year the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB) was established. From 2018 to 2019, Navrátil served as the first Director of NÚKIB.
Nowadays Navrátil works as a national security expert at Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University in Brno.