Hilton was admitted as an attorney of the High Court of South Africa in 1978. He practiced as a commercial attorney from 1979 to 2003 at Mallinick Ress Richman & Closenberg attorneys, specialising in litigation and insolvency and ending his time at the firm as Senior Partner. He has since held various commercial positions, focussing on litigation, mergers and acquisitions and commercial legal matters pertaining to JSE listings. He joined Pan African Group of Companies (a Black Economic Empowerment corporation) for a number of years, providing him with valuable insight into the mining industry. He has also held various roles in consortiums tasked in mergers and acquisitions of listed entities and has co-founded a number of private entities. Hilton was appointed to the Board of R&E as a non-executive director on 15 November 2019. He has subsequently taken up the role as an executive director to the Board. The change in directorship came into effect on 29 January 2020.