[1] She is a professor in the School of Computer Science in the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Software Research at Carnegie Mellon University and also holds appointments in the Tepper School of Business, the Heinz College, the Department of Engineering and Public Policy, and the Department of Social and Decision Sciences.

[2] On leaving Harvard in 1984, Carley secured a position as Assistant Professor of Sociology and Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University where she remains based.

Methodologically she applies network science, machine learning, natural language processing, and agent based modeling to high-dimensional, large, and dynamic data.

She has also contributed to research on computational social and organization theory,[citation needed] adaptation and evolution, text mining, and the impact of telecommunication technologies and policy on communication, information diffusion, disease contagion and response within and among groups particularly in disaster or crisis situations, and dynamic network methods.

[citation needed] Carley is the founding co-editor and co-editor-in-chief of the journal Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory.