She conducted postdoctoral work at the United States' National Institutes of Health and then moved to the University of New Hampshire in 2002.
[1] In 2014 Di Palma was named the director of science at The Genome Analysis Centre.
[2] As of 2024 Di Palma is the chief scientific officer and vice president of research and innovation at Genome British Columbia.
[4][5] She then worked on genome sequencing projects to examine evolution in the Caribbean anole lizard,[6] the cichlids of East African lakes,[7] and the three-spine stickleback.
[8] Di Palma is part of a coalition working to expand science research in Columbia.