Formerly a teacher of German, she joined the Georgian diplomatic service in 1994 and was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Bidzina Ivanishvili on October 25, 2012.

[1] After being dismissed from the foreign service in 2010, she claimed that the decision was made for political reasons after her brother-in-law Irakli Alasania quit as Georgia's ambassador to the United Nations and withdrew into opposition to the administration of President Mikheil Saakashvili in 2008.

[2][3] In February 2012, Panjikidze joined the ranks of opposition as a spokesperson for Bidzina Ivanishvili, a multi-billionaire businessman who set up the political party Georgian Dream–Democratic Georgia in order to challenge the incumbent United National Movement in the October 1 parliamentary election.

She functioned as the Ivanishvili-led coalition's spokesperson and head of its central office throughout the uneasy election campaign.

In her first comments as a minister, she said Georgia's foreign policy priorities such as the European and Euro-Atlantic integration, strategic partnership with the United States, and good relations with neighbors would remain unchanged.