Schmidauer has served as the First Lady of Austria since January 2017 as the wife of Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen.

[1] As a student, Schmidauer participated in the 1984 Occupation of the Hainburger Au, to help preserve a large flood plain and wetlands area near Vienna.

[1] Schmidauer worked as the personal assistant and political aide to Alexander Van der Bellen, a prominent Green Party politician (and her future husband) from 1996 until 1999.

She expressed a desire to continue working within the Green Party's leadership while fulfilling her obligations as first lady and wife of the president.

[1][5] She left her position as manager of the Greens Parliamentary Club in January 2018 to focus on the duties of the first lady.