After completing her PhD, Milner-Gulland became a junior research fellow at New College, Oxford. In 1994, she became a lecturer in mathematical ecology at the University of Warwick. In 1998, she moved back to Imperial College, where she stayed until 2015. In 2007, she was appointed Professor of Conservation Science. In 2015 she became the Tasso Leventis Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Oxford and a fellow of
Merton College. In 2019 she became an official fellow of
Parks College (later renamed
Reuben College) where she was Theme Lead for Environmental Change. However, she moved back to Merton College in 2021. Milner-Gulland is a conservation scientist whose work is at the interface of social and biological systems. She is the founder and chair of the Saiga Conservation Alliance and has launched a number of initiatives which aim to change the real-world conversation around conservation, including the Conservation Hierarchy approach to meeting a global vision of restoring nature, the Conservation Optimism movement and the Alliance of Nature Positive Universities. She is the Chair of the UK Government's Darwin Expert Committee and a Trustee of the UK
WWF. In 2015, Milner-Gulland became a Pew Fellow of Marine Conservation. She is also a trustee of the
Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust. ==Honours and awards==