Tugba has been working at the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies since 2021 as a research fellow/survey manager, and currently works for the COSMO and Next Steps studies.
Tugba holds a PhD in demography from the Hacettepe University Institute of Population Studies in Turkey. She worked there as an assistant professor teaching courses on survey statistics and methodology, and was part of the team conducting the Demographic and Health Surveys in Turkey where she was involved in sampling, coordination of listing and mapping fieldwork, sampling weight calculations, analysis and reporting.