Ali is the Chief Executive at the Youth Sport Trust, an independent, UK children's charity devoted to building brighter futures for young people through the power of play and sport.

Ali joined the Youth Sport Trust in 2004 as a member of the senior leadership team and became the CEO in 2016. Prior to this, Ali was the Deputy Director of Sport at the University of Bath having joined as the course leader for the physical education initial teacher training programme. Whilst at Bath, Ali set up the TEAMBath netball franchise and worked on the development of the English Institute of Sport. Before this, Ali was head of department at Millfield School, having started her career as PE teacher in Essex.

Ali is a Trustee of the Youth United Foundation and The Wave Project, and sits on the Board of the Sport for Development Coalition and sports committee of the HMC.

In 2019, Ali received an honorary doctorate of the University of Bath. She was recognised as the Best Leader (not for profit category) in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies in 2020, and in the same year was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.