McTague is professor of materials at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Previously, he served as vice president of laboratory management for the University of California, Office of the President.

McTague was founding co-chair of the Department of Energy National Laboratory Operations Board and a member of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board from its inception in 1990 through 2000. From 1994 to 1999, he was also chairman of the Fermilab Board of Overseers. In 1999, he retired from Ford Motor Company, where he served more than twelve years, first as vice president of research and then as vice president of technical affairs. At Ford, he established the U.S. Council for Automotive Research (USCAR), an unique research collaboration involving Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors.

Prior to 1986, McTague served as deputy director and acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and was acting science advisor to President Reagan. During the Bush administration, he was a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and U.S. chair of the U.S.-Japan High Level Advisory Panel on Science and Technology.

A physical chemist, McTague received his undergraduate degree with honors in chemistry from Georgetown University in 1960 and his Ph.D. from Brown University. Brown also bestowed on him an honorary Sc.D. in 1997. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received Alfred P. Sloan, John Simon Guggenheim, and NATO Senior Fellowships, as well as the California Section Award of the American Chemical Society. In 1998, the American Physical Society honored him with the Pake Prize "For insightful experiments and contributions to the understanding of 2-D phase transitions and orientation epitaxy; for major contributions in management of science in government, national laboratories, and industry; and for championing new paradigms for collaboration, such as the Partnership for New Generation Vehicles".