 Sambruna held a postdoctoral position at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), in Baltimore, MD, was an NRC Research Fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and a Research Associate at the Pennsylvania State University, in State College, PA. She held CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.From 2000-2005, Sambruna held the Clare Boothe Luce Professorship in Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University, where she was part of the teaching faculty and where she mentored several undergraduate and graduate students in research projects.She was a senior scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center with the Fermi group, conducting research on galaxies, jets, and black holes.