Luke Williams was a youth team player at Norwich alongside Bobby Zamora. They moved to Bristol Rovers but Williams was released without making a first team appearance and joined non-league Ashford Town.

Seriously injured at the age of 20, Williams spent three years out before retiring to concentrate on coaching – first with a role in West Ham’s Kickz scheme, then as an FA Skills coach, where he worked on a programme designed to fight childhood obesity. In 2008, he joined Leyton Orient’s youth team under Dean Smith while simultaneously managing the academy at Non-League Witham Town.

Appointed to lead Brighton’s newly-formed development squad in 2009, he saw a string of youngsters graduate to the first-team, among  them Rohan Ince and England Under-21 star Jake Forster-Caskey. He then joined Swindon in 2013 and was Mark Cooper’s assistant as the Robins reached the 2015 play-off final, ultimately losing to Preston. He was retained when Cooper was replaced by Martin Ling, and Ling’s resignation in December 2015 led to Williams being asked to manage the club until the end of the season by chairman Lee Power. He signed a five year contract in March 2016.

Swindon were relegated into League Two on 22nd April 2017 following a 2-1 home defeat to Scunthorpe that left them in 22nd place. He was sacked as Swindon manager on 5th May 2017.

In June 2017, he joined Bristol City as their Under-23 Coach. He stayed for 2 years before becoming Russell Martin's assistant at MK Dons. They both moved to Swansea in August 2021 only for WIlliams to leave in February 2022 for personal reasons.

On 14th June 2022 he was appointed as manager of Notts County following the departure of Ian Burchnall, who left Notts in May to take charge of League One side Forest Green Rovers. Williams will be the third manager to try to get Notts County back to League Two, after the club were relegated from the English Football League for the first time in their history in 2019. Williams succeeded in his task with County winning the National League play-off final against Chesterfield on 13th May 2023 with on-loan Norwich keeper Archie Mair proving vital in the penalty shoot-out after the game finished 2-2.

On 5th January 2024 he was appointed as manager of Swansea City, replacing Michael Duff, who was sacked by the Championship club on 4th December. "As I have said previously, we have undertaken a diligent and detailed process to find our next head coach," said Swansea chairman Andy Coleman."I have been fortunate to spend a lot of time with Luke recently. I have looked him in the eye and know that we can trust Luke to be a coach and leader who is aligned with our vision for Swansea City. He fits right into the mould of other talented and ambitious young managers who have succeeded here. I am confident our supporters will be excited by and proud of this Luke Williams-led Swansea City team." Williams is regarded as a high-quality coach who, crucially, is committed to playing the sort of possession-based game Swansea are keen to restore having been criticised for their style of play during Duff's unsuccessful reign.

Williams was sacked by Swansea in February 2025 after a run of seven defeats in nine Championship matches. He had a win percentage of 32.76%