Bonaguro became chief data officer for the City and County of San Francisco in 2014 where her developments of data science as a service led to results such as predicting with 83% accuracy mothers and babies at risk of dropping out of nutrition programs, identifying fleet reduction opportunities through shared vehicle pools and the cofounding of Data Academy, a training program estimated to save up to $11 million in staff time. In 2018 Bonaguro started a role as head of systems and data at computer and network security business Corelight, Inc before returning to the public sphere in 2020 as the chief data officer for the State of California where she is systematically accelerating data use in California.