Niharika graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014 with a B.A. in Astrophysics. She began working as a Junior Specialist at the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) on the GRIPS balloon mission and TILDAE sonic anemometer soon after graduation, and participated in their subsequent integration and launch campaigns from the Long-Duration Balloon facility in McMurdo Station, Antarctica in 2016. She also worked on the TRICE2 sounding rocket payload while at SSL.

Niharika joined the Magnetosphere Ionosphere Research Laboratory (MIRL) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) in the fall of 2017, having been awarded the UNH CEPS and Harper fellowships. She has been working on multiple projects as part of her PhD studies, focusing on the development of the TIGTOF ion instrument as part of the CREX-2 sounding rocket mission. She has participated in the CREX-2, KiNET-X, and LAMP sounding rocket payload integration and launch campaigns (providing remote support for KiNET-X and LAMP during the COVID-19 pandemic), supporting the UNH TIGTOF, EPLAS, and ERPA particle instruments.