K V Jena specialized in ceramics at the Faculty of Arts & Crafts at the Gandhian Institute at Sevagram. He taught there between 1956 and 1959. He went to Kolkata for three years as a designer in ceramics to the Regional Design Centre, All-India Handicrafts Board and in 1961 moved to Central Design Centre, Lucknow as crafts designer in ceramics and pottery. In 1967, he moved to the Faculty of Fine Arts, Benaras Hindu University, Varanasi to teach under-graduate and post-graduate courses from where he retired  in 1995. In his career, K V Jena has been instrumental in setting up a number of pottery centers in Uttar Pradesh, combining traditional Indian values with modern ideas and utilitarian needs. A true Gandhian, he himself worked on the simple village wheel using basic tools only. He has tried to impress this idealism on his students whenever he taught at Varanasi, Baroda, Jaipur and Santiniketan. His work has received many awards and his ceramics are in several collections in India and abroad. After his retirement he worked in his own studio at Phoolpur, a small town in UP.