Rabia Nafees Shah's first job was as a Teaching Assistant at the Lahore University of Management Sciences. At the University of Florida, she was selected as the only incoming graduate recipient of the Ruth McQuown Fellowship for one academic year. This fellowship is reserved for outstanding female students in the humanities, social sciences and interdisciplinary studies. She also received a Certificate for Academic Achievement from the University of Florida where she taught several Writing courses and Literature courses while studying for her own degree in Post-colonial Studies. As part of the English faculty at LUMS, Rabia Nafees Shah has taught courses pertaining to Body Studies, Gender and Feminism, Adaptation Studies and Modernism. Since 2018, she has also served as the Stream Coordinator of the Writing Stream of courses in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.