Domingo was born in Port Elizabeth to a Coloured family, and played for Eastern Province at colts level without ever breaking through into the senior team. He gained his first coaching qualification at the age of 22, and at the age of 25 was hired as a youth coach for Eastern Province. Having worked under Hylton Ackerman at South Africa's national academy, Domingo was appointed coach of the South African under-19s team at the 2004 Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh. The following year, he took over from as the coach of the Warriors franchise, eventually leading the side to victory in the domestic one-day and Twenty20 competitions during the 2009–10 season. Domingo also coached the Warriors at the 2010 and 2011 editions of the Champions League Twenty20, with the franchise losing to the Chennai Super Kings in the final of the former. In May 2010, Domingo was appointed coach of South Africa A for a tour of Bangladesh. He retained the position when Bangladesh A returned the tour the following year.
In June 2011, Domingo was appointed assistant coach of the senior national team, under the newly appointed senior coach Gary Kirsten. In December 2012, he took over from Kirsten as South Africa's Twenty20 International coach, with his first series being against New Zealand. At the time of his appointment, he and New Zealand coach Mike Hesson were the only national coaches not to have played professionally. In May 2013, Gary Kirsten announced that he would resign as national coach at the end of July, with Domingo subsequently being announced as his replacement. He has since led South Africa to the semi-finals of the 2014 World Twenty20 and 2015 World Cup, and received a two-year contract extension in September 2014. In August 2017 CSA announced the appointment of Ottis Gibson as the new head coach of the Proteas subsequently relegating Russell to coaching the SA A team. He was also appointed head coach of the Pretoria Mavericks for the T20 GLOBAL LEAGUE in South Africa.
Russell Domingo named Bangladesh head coach on 17 August 2019. he signed for two years. BCB president Nazmul Hassan said that Domingo's long-term planning and full-time availability played a big part in their decision. Domingo had been the only candidate to have traveled to Dhaka for his interview, impressing Hassan and some of the directors last week.
