Mirriam Mogotsi-Maakwe started her career with the Medical Research Council on the 1st of October 1982 as a field worker and data coder with a branch of the National Research Programme for Nutritional Intervention, based at the Johannesburg Hospital in Parktown. Virtually immediately, the group moved to the premises of the Dental Research Institute (DRI) in Gate House on the Wits east Campus.

During field studies she interviewed subjects for nutrition-based studies and took anthropometric measurements, coding information to be analyzed.  She later, in 1987, joined the Dental Research Institute under Prof Peter Cleaton-Jones. She remained with DRI until 31 December 2004, where she took part in nutritional research related to teeth caries, learned various skills such in microbiology, histology, scanning electron microscopy, darkroom work and data capture. She was promoted to senior technical assistant. When DRI closed on the 31st of December 2004, Mirriam joined the Environmental Health and Development under Prof Angela Mathee. 

At the Environment and Health Research Unit, among other duties, she focuses on fieldwork, project coordinating, procurement of equipment and study consumables, fieldworker training and support. She is currently the Chief Research Technologist.