Nagao Akitada served as a bushō from the latter part of the Muromachi period to the Sengoku period.  Akitada was the sixth head of the Sōja-Nagao clan of Kōzuke Province and served as the kasai, or head of house affairs, for the Yamanouchi-Uesugi family.

Akitada was born as the eldest son of Nagao Tadakage, the fifth head of the Sōja-Nagao clan.  Nagao Kagetada (Zaemon) was the seventh head of the Nagao clan from the Nanboku to early Muromachi periods.  In the era of Kagetada’s grandchildren, the Nagao clan of Kōzuke Province split between the Shiroi-Nagao branch based in Shiroi and the Sōja-Nagao branch based in Sōja.  It is surmised that Akitada received one of the characters in his name either from Uesugi Fusaaki or Uesugi Akisada.

In 1480, Akitada served as a commander in the Uesugi army in the Chichibu District, clashing with Nagao Kageharu.  Soon thereafter, he appears to have inherited the headship of the Sōja-Nagao clan.  During the Chōkyō War from 1487, he was the head of the house affairs, serving as a mainstay of the Uesugi army in battle against Uesugi Tomoyoshi and Ise Sōzui.  Sōzui (later known as Hōjō Sōun) was the founder of the Gohōjō clan, becoming a sengoku daimyō.

In Akitada’s later years, he may have been based at Sugiyama Castle in Musashi Province.  In 1505, he requested a noble in Kyōto named Sanjōnishi Sanetaka to touch-up his waka and maintained relations with other cultural figures in the capital including Banri Shūku (a Zen monk and poet originating from Ōmi Province) and Inawashiro Kensai  (a renga master originating from Aizu in Mutsu Province).

Akitada died on 1/9 of Eishō 6 (1509).  He did not have a son so the clan was inherited by his nephew, Nagao Akikata, as a son-in-law.