Currently, as an awardee of Australia Awards Scholarship, Zaki is taking Ph.D. in Australia National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS), University of Wollongong focusing on IUU fishing, transnational organized fisheries crimes, environmental law, the law of the sea and international fisheries law. The same award was received by Zaki when pursuing Master of International Law and International Relations in the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia in 2008.

Zaki also works for Legal and Organization Bureau of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia as a Legal Officer. In this role, his involvement includes drafting and negotiating a range of bilateral and multilateral agreements as well as domestic laws and regulations. When working in the Ministry, he was also as a consultant on legal, policy and institution of Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion Program as part of the cooperation between UNDP/GEF and the Governments of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Before joining the Ministry, he was a member of expert panel in the House of Representatives of Indonesia for international relations and ethics matters and an Officer in ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly.

In 2016, he was selected to participate in the UN-Nippon fellowship. During the fellowship program, he spent three months in the UN Division of Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea (DOALOS), New York and six months in the Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. In the same year, he was member of Regional Program on Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) for the Preparatory Committee Meeting on ABNJ in the UN Headquarters, New York. He is an active member of alumni network of both the UN-Nippon fellowship and ABNJ regional programs.

In his years of experience, he has been invited as a speaker in maritime and international issues conferences and had the opportunity to attend various international conferences such as Ocean Conference and UNCLOS State of Parties meeting in the United Nations headquarters in New York and Fisheries Crime Symposium in UNODC, Vienna and other bilateral and multilateral negotiations in various roles as researcher, participant, advisor or delegate.

Parallel to his job and study, he enjoys writing articles pertaining to IUU fishing, fisheries crimes, ocean affairs, transnational organized crimes, international law and international relations published by international journal and Indonesia newspapers such as the Jakarta Post, Republika and Detik. National media cover his views expressed on Sustainable Development Goals and Indonesia policy on the sinking and burning of illegal fishing vessels through interviews.

His areas of expertise comprise of public international law, international environmental law, the law of the sea, environmental crime, transnational organized crimes, fisheries law and international relations.