Dr. Tamborini is a senior researcher in the Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics at the U.S. Social Security Administration and an adjunct faculty member for the Department of Sociology at the University of Maryland. His research interests cut across the areas of aging and the life course, public policy, and social demography. Much of his work has focused on topics relating to retirement, labor market, inequality, international migration, health, family, race-ethnicity, education, and research methods.

A key strand of his recent research focuses on the economic assimilation of U.S. immigrants over the life course using national survey data linked to longitudinal administrative records. Other ongoing research projects examine lifetime earnings trajectories in the U.S by birth cohort, race-ethnicity, and gender.  His research has been published in numerous journals including American Sociological Review, Demography, Social Forces, Sociology of Education, Sociological Methods & Research, and Journal of Health and Social Behavior.