Prof. Figueroa received her PhD in molecular genetics from the State University of New York, Stony Brook and her Master's in Public Health from Columbia University. After postdoctoral training in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) at the National Cancer Insititute (NCI, USA), she was promoted to Investigator and was a fully funded independent researcher at DCEG-NCI from 2008 till 2015 before moving to Edinburgh as a Chancellors Fellow (Associate Professor/Reader). She joined the Brain Tumour Centre of Excellence in 2018 providing key input on data science studies within the team. In 2020, with the Covid-19 pandemic, she became Honorary Senior Analyst, National Health Services (NHS) Lothian, Cancer Informatics team, providing epidemiologic expertise to inform how data could help cancer services and recovery activities. She was promoted to Professor and Chair of Molecular Epidemiology and Global Cancer Prevention at the University of Edinburgh in 2022. In 2023, she became Honorary Fellow.   

She is currently Senior Investigator and National Institutes of Health Distinguished Scholar at the NCI-DCEG Integrated Tumor Epidemiology Branch.