[1] In the early years of her career, Gottemoeller was a social scientist at RAND and a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow.

She previously held the post of Assistant Secretary for Nonproliferation and National Security, also at the Department of Energy (DOE).

[2] Before returning to government, she was a senior associate in the Carnegie Russia & Eurasia Program in Washington, D.C., where she worked on U.S.–Russian relations and nuclear security and stability.

While with Carnegie, Gottemoeller led consultative Track II meetings with Russian nuclear experts.

On August 6, 2015, Gottemoeller was the first senior U.S. official to attend the memorial of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan by the United States in World War II.

Japan had hoped for U.S. president Barack Obama to attend the memorial; the country has a standing call for the U.S. to apologize for the bombings.