Zubaida was a Senior Researcher at Demos between May and October 2008. She led a project on housing and immigration which examines the issues of aspirations, agency and fairness as peceived and experienced by different migrant and settled communities in Bradford.

Zubaida's expertise are in the areas of education, community cohesion, ethnic minorities and the labour market, Muslim communities, radicalisation and extremism.

Zubaida has worked for  the UN World Food Programme, World Bank, The Runnymede Trust, the University of Westminster Business School, Department for Education and Skills, Department of Trade and Industry, the CRE and with senior politicians.

She has contributed significantly to the following reports, panels and commissions: The Commission on Multi-Ethnic Britain Report (2000); Community Cohesion (Independent Review Team, 2001); Oldham Independent Review Report (2001); Building Cohesive Communities, A Report of the Ministerial Group (2001); Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market (Strategy Unit, 2003) and Review of the Most Effective Means of Tackling Systemic Racial Discrimination Amongst Emloyers (DTI, 2005).

Zubaida has also written in peer-reviewed journals and newspapers:
Evaluating the Performances of Minority Ethnic Pupils in Secondary Schools in Oxford Review of Education (September 2001), 23, 3, 357-368

Class, Colour and Achievement in Times Educational Supplement, February 9th 2001

The Ethnic Minority Underachieving Group? Investigating the claims of underachievement amongst Bangladeshi pupils in British secondary schools in Race, Ethnicity and Education, 3,2, 2000

Zubaida has also given several presentations and speeches to a variety of audiences since 2000 (e.g. British Muslims and Education, the experiences of minority ethnic women in the labour market, Achievement, Assessment and Underachievement, Community Cohesion and the Future of race and diversity).