He spent the years 1929–48 working as a civil servant and administrator in various Pacific Islands. Between 1940 and 1941, Maude was sent to the Pitcairn Islands by the Western Pacific High Commission, to modernise the government, and to establish a post office and issue stamps in order to generate revenue for the people of the island. During this time, Maude and his wife collected a great number of Polynesian archaeological items found on the Pitcairn Islands, later donated to the Auckland War Memorial Museum in New Zealand. The almost 1,500 item collection composes the largest known collection of cultural artefacts from the islands. Maude spent much time in the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, serving as land commissioner before WWII then, after the Japanese occupation of the Gilbert Islands, as Resident Commissioner from 1946 to 1949. From 1948 to 1957, he worked for the South Pacific Commission.