Zmarak Shalizi joined the World Bank in 1975 as a participant in the Bank's Young Professionals Program. He served as an economist in the Europe, Middle East, and North Africa Regional Office; the Water Supply and Urban Development Department; the Resource Mobilization and Public Management Division of the Country Policy Department; and the Public Economics Division of the Country Economics Department. After a brief assignment as the chief administrative officer in the Policy Research Department, he was named the chief of the Transport Division in the Infrastructure and Urban Development Department (later the Transport, Water and Urban Development Department) in 1991. In 1995 he became the chief of the Environment, Infrastructure and Agriculture Division in the Policy Research Department. Two years later, in 1997, he moved to the Development Research Group in the Development Economics vice presidency as a research manager, becoming senior research manager in 2005.