Career in the public sector

In 2000, Pejčinović Burić was appointed Assistant Minister at Croatia's Ministry of European Integration. In 2001 she was included in the negotiating team for the EU-Croatia Stabilisation and Association Agreement. From 2003 onwards she worked as lecturer on European integration at the seminars of the Croatian Diplomatic Academy.

In 2004, Pejčinović Burić was appointed State Secretary at the Ministry of European Integration and the following year as State Secretary for European Integration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, both under the leadership of minister Miomir Žužul in the government of Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. She served as National Coordinator for Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) programs (2004-2006), National Coordinator for Assistance Programmes and Co-operation with the EU as well as member of the working group on the free movement of capital of Croatia's EU accession negotiations (2005-2006). From 2006 Pejčinović Burić was member of Croatia's EU accession negotiations team, and negotiator for the acquis chapters on External Relations, Foreign, Security and Defence Policy, Institutions and Other Issues, as well as chairperson for Croatia in the EU-Croatia Stabilisation and Association Committee and chairperson of the Croatia - Baden-Württemberg Mixed Commission (2006-2008).

Member of Parliament, 2008–2011

In 2008, Pejčinović Burić was elected to the Parliament of Croatia for the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, representing the 6th electoral district. She held the parliamentary seat until the 2011 elections. During her time in parliament, she served on the Committee on European Integration and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In addition to her committee assignments, she was a member of the Croatian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and chaired the Croatian – USA Parliamentary Friendship Group.

From 2012 until 2013, Pejčinović Burić lectured on the Lisbon Treaty at the seminars of Croatia's State School for Public Administration. From 2013, she worked for a few years as private consultant on EU, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and bilaterally funded projects in the candidate and potential candidate countries, as well as in European Neighbourhood countries. She also provided consultancies on European integration for the Government of Serbia.

On 17 November 2016, Pejčinović Burić came back into service as State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, under the leadership of minister Davor Ivo Stier in the government of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, 2017–2019

In June 2017 Pejčinović Burić was appointed by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković as new Foreign Affairs Minister of Croatia, replacing Davor Ivo Stier after his resignation. In this capacity, she served as chairwoman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for a six-month term in 2018. From 2017 until 2019, she also co-chaired the European People's Party (EPP) trade ministers meetings alongside Jyrki Katainen, vice-president of the European Commission.^[3]

In 2019, Pejčinović Burić announced her candidacy to succeed Thorbjørn Jagland as Secretary General of the Council of Europe.^[4]