Ingrid studied psychology at the University of Mainz (Germany) and the University of Leiden (The Netherlands) where she received a PhD in psychology in 1992. On completion of her PhD she took up a lectureship in Social Research at City University London, which at the time hosted the British Cohort Studies. Since 1996 she is registered as a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society. In 2002 she was awarded a Chair in Psychology by City University and directed the Centre for Human Development and Wellbeing. In 2007 she was appointed as Chair in Human Development and Social Policy at the Institute of Education, which in 2014 joined University College London.

Currently she is the Chair of Social Policy at the Social Research Institute (SRI), University College London. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the Social Science Centre (Wissenschaftszentrum) Berlin. She is  past President (2022-2024) of the European Association for Research on Adolescence (EARA) and past President (2020-2022) of the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies (SLLS).

She has served as advisor to government departments and is a member of several national and international review boards, such as the Swiss National Centre of Excellence (NCCR) and the German Youth Institute (DJI). She is also a member of the OECD 2030 Competencies Framework Working Group and the UNESCO Inclusive Social Policy Lab.