She was previously Deputy Chief of Staff to Janet Yellen, the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, the associate director of public engagement in the White House Office of Public Engagement, and the primary liaison to the LGBTQ and AAPI communities during the second term of the Obama administration.

[2] Hardikar helped lead LGBTQ fundraising and outreach efforts on the Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign.

[1][3] During the second term of the presidency of Barack Obama, Hardikar succeeded Gautam Raghavan as the associate director of public engagement in the White House Office of Public Engagement, serving as the primary liaison to the LGBTQ and AAPI communities for issues including economic opportunity, health care, transgender rights, data collection, and youth homelessness.

[5] Hardikar spent three years at the Obama Foundation, first as chief of staff with a focus on strategic planning and organizational growth, and then as the acting vice president for operations on the development team, overseeing data and analytics, communications, and research.

[3] In 2022, Hardikar succeeded Alfred Johnson as the deputy chief of staff to Janet Yellen, the U.S. secretary of the treasury.