He attended Dauntsey's School in Wiltshire, followed Lancaster University where he studied theatre studies, graduating in 2008. Ings later trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and the National Youth Theatre and has appeared in a number of stage, short films and television programmes. His most notable roles to date are those of Jake in the Channel 4 comedy Pete versus Life and Kelvin in the BBC comedy drama Psychoville. He also starred in Sky 1's comedy The Cafe in November 2011.
He has also appeared as the unscrupulous "Director of Output" Matt Taverner in the BBC2 mockumentary W1A (2014–2015) and as Commander Mike Parker in the Netflix series The Crown (2016–2017). In 2018, he began playing the husband of Alan Cumming's lead character on the CBS police procedural drama television series Instinct.
