After receiving an MPhil and a PhD in Astrophysics with a thesis featuring the X-ray properties of extragalactic jets observed with ROSAT,[1] Sambruna held a postdoctoral position at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), in Baltimore, MD, was an NRC Research Fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and a research associate at the Pennsylvania State University, in State College, Pennsylvania.

[1] From 2000-2005, Sambruna was the Clare Boothe Luce Professor in Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University, where she was part of the teaching faculty and where she mentored several undergraduate and graduate students in research projects.

From 2005, she was a senior scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center with the Fermi group, conducting research on galaxies, jets, and black holes.

[1] Rita Sambruna is currently the Deputy Director of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Her research utilizes multi wavelength observations from Hubble and other space and ground-based telescopes, recently adding gravitational waves and other messengers for a broader and deeper understanding of the Universe.