Tanel has graduated from the School of Economics and Business Administration of the University of Tartu, after which he proceeded to public sector. He has worked in the Estonian Ministry to Finance and in Tallinn City. His main focus was financing and budgeting. In year 2007 he started to work in Tallinn Education Department as the head of finances and later as the head of education services. For the last three years he has been the CEO of eKool AS, which is providing school management system for K12 schools.