Literary critic, pedagogue, doctor of humanities Dainius Vaitiekūnas studied Lithuanian language and literature at Vilnius Pedagogical University (currently Vytautas Magnus University Academy of Education). He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in 1994 and Master’s degree in 1995. In 2000, Vaitiekūnas defended his doctoral dissertation in the humanities. 

In 2003–2005, he taught at the Lithuanian Language Section of the Paris National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO). In 2004–2005, Vaitiekūnas hosted the author’s cultural talk show Prieš Laikrodžio Rodyklę (Anti-clockwise) on LRT Radijas. From 2001 to 2018, he taught and was a professor at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences (currently Vytautas Magnus University Academy of Education). From 2018, Vaitiekūnas holds the position of associate professor at the Faculty of Communication of Vilnius University. 

He is a member of the editorial board of the periodical Semiotika of Vilnius University since 2012, a member of the Patronage Council under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania since 2018, a member of the editorial board of the Lithuanian Comparative Literature Association’s periodical Acta Litteraria since 2020, and a member of the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO since 2021. 

Vaitiekūnas prepares scientific and journalistic articles, reviews of cultural and periodical publications, and has developed methodological tools. Two monographs by Vaitiekūnas have been published: Pasakojimas B. Radzevičiaus „Priešaušrio vieškeliuose (The Tale of B. Radzevičius “In the Roads of the Enemy”) (2004) and Lietuvių Literatūra Ir Reklama: Vartotojų Visuomenės Poezija (Lithuanian Literature and Advertising: Poetry of the Consumer Society) (2014). 

In 2019, Vaitiekūnas received a letter of acknowledgement from the Minister of Culture.