Zainab is working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Software Engineering Global interAction Lab (SEGAL) in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Victoria, Canada. Before that she was working as a Professional Teaching Fellow at the University of Auckland. She also worked as a Research Assistant in the Human Aspects of Software Engineering Lab (HASEL) and Software Engineering Processes, Tools, and Applications (SEPTA) research lab at the University of Auckland. Prior to that, she was working as a Software Tester and Quality Expert in the software industry for more than 9 years.

Her research interests include software development methods, processes, and practices, human and socio-technical aspects of software engineering. Her research mainly applied qualitative empirical research methods, data collection and analysis procedures involving interviews, observations, and surveys. She has published her research in the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), and the Journal of Systems and Software (JSS).

She obtained her PhD from the University of Auckland in 2021. Her Phd dissertation focused on Task Allocation Practice in Agile Software Development. She received a Master of Engineering Studies (MEngSt) from the University of Auckland in 2013 and a Bachelor of Software Engineering from Fatima Jinnah Women University in 2005.