[4] Maxwell subsequently earned a PhD in 2005 at Royal Holloway College by defending a thesis[5] entitled "Gender versus ‘vulnerability’: how they determine young people's sexual and relationship experiences".

Maxwell combined her part-time PhD research with employment by Oxfordshire County Council, initially as a social worker, and later as a public health specialist and teenage pregnancy co-ordinator for the county, developing and implementing a strategy to reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy across Oxfordshire.

Maxwell is also a specialist on transnational migration of high-skilled professionals, examining the convertibility of resources in new countries and workplaces.

[10][11] Working with private and public partners in industry, from 2022 to 2025 Maxwell led the development of research-based digital onboarding tools designed for Danish companies to use as they seek to improve their recruitment and retention of high-skilled international professionals.

Maxwell and her co-authors focus on how social class divergence is forged through movements across borders, and how travel has been influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

The retired figure skater, Olympian, and fitness influencer Fleur Maxwell[29][30] is her youngest sister.