Dr Rendi-Wagner has been Director-General for Public Health and Medical Affairs at the Federal Ministry of Health of Austria since 2011. She trained at the Medical University of Vienna, specializing in specific prophylaxis and tropical medicine, and subsequently at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She then became a lecturer at the University.

Dr Rendi-Wagner is scientifically active at the national and international levels in the areas of infectious disease epidemiology, vaccine-preventable infections and travel medicine. She has been a visiting professor at Tel Aviv University, Israel since 2008 and at the Medical University of Vienna since 2011.