Zinnbauer works on emerging policy issues and innovation for the International Secretariat of Transparency International (TI) in Berlin. Zinnbauer runs a blog on ambient accountability and some of his research and writings can be found on SSRN. Prior to his current assignment Zinnbauer served as Chief Editor of TI's flagship Global Corruption Report and prior to joining he worked as policy analyst and research coordinator for a variety of organizations in Europe, Asia and North America in the field of development, governance and technology policy, including the UNDP, UNDESA, and the European Commission. Zinnbauer has an MSc in Economics from the University of Regensburg, Germany, a PhD in Development Studies from the London School of Economics, and has undertaken research in the context of several post doctorate assignments with the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, Oxford University, the US Social Science Research Council, and the London School of Economics.

His interests in the field of corruption and integrity are as eclectic as his job title is elusive. Questions he seeks to answer include: Can we architect and design for accountability and integrity? What does urbanization mean for corruption and corruption mean for urbanization? How can professional value systems be harnessed to foster integrity? Can we capture policy capture? He hopes to explore the latter, how to empirically understand, identify, track and compare risks of policy capture, in a bit more detail during his fellowship time at the Safra Center.