Tadjbakhsh has taken part in multiple PRIO projects. She is based in Paris, France, where she directs a concentration on Human Security at the Master’s of Public Affairs (MPA) at Sciences Po, Paris. She founded a program for peace and human security at Sciences Po and launched the Journal of Human Security/la revue de Sécurité Humaine.

Prior to moving to France in 2004, she was an Adjunct Lecturer at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a Visiting Scholar at the Harriman Institute for post-Soviet Studies (2002-2004). She has also been a visiting professor at Jamia Islamiya University, New Delhi (since October 2008), University of Pretoria, South Africa (February 2009), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (Summer 2005), the Russian Centre for Strategic Research and International studies, Moscow (1994), and at the Academy of Sciences in Dushanbe, Tajikistan (1992). Between 1995-2002, she worked as a staff member of the UNDP in various field assignments in Central Asia, the CIS and Eastern Europe with a last posting as Policy Advisor to National Human Development Reports (NHDR) at the human Development Report Office in UNDP New York.

Tadjbakhsh holds a Bachelor's Degree from Georgetown University (1987), a Master’s Degree (1991) and a Doctoral Degree (1994) from Columbia University. She is of Iranian origin, an American citizen and a resident of France.