Zainab has a BSc Honours in Chemical Engineering from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK. She has over 35 years' process design and engineering experience, and holds a custodian engineer post in process design and engineering and is the Head of LNG and Gas in Process Department of Project Delivery and Technology Division (PD&T) at PETRONAS.

Zainab has used her experience in process design and engineering for various conceptual and front-end engineering works for PETRONAS projects such as the gas processing plants, refinery and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities. Zainab is the Group Technical Authority (GTA) at PETRONAS, who provides group-wide technical governance, and resolves high risk technical issues for projects in process design and operations-process units. She is one of the key members in the Hydrogen Steering committee, driving sustainability programmes on circular carbon and hydrogen in meeting net zero carbon emissions in 2050 for PETRONAS.