Zulkifli Mahmud graduated in Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from University of Miami, Florida, United States of America. He has also received a Diploma in Supervisory Management from Institute of Supervisory Management, United Kingdom.

He started his career as a Sales Engineer in the gas industry and later joined the automotive industry as a Management Trainee and gradually moved to various managerial positions such as Warranty and Technical Service Assistant Manager, System and Process Audit Section Head, Quality Control and Production Engineering Manager, Quality Assurance Manager, Research and Development Manager, Sales and Marketing Manager, Automotive and Production Engineering Senior Manager and eventually held senior management positions namely as a Chief Operating Officer and Chief  Executive Officer.

Among organizations he has worked for were Asas Bersama (Selangor) Sdn Bhd, Proton Berhad, Ingress Engineering Sdn Bhd, Seginiaga Rubber Industries Sdn Bhd, Delloyd Industries Sdn Bhd, DRB-Hicom Berhad, Oriental Summit Industries Sdn Bhd and Automotive Components Engineering Centre Sdn Bhd.

During his working tenure, he participated in many key activities/ initiatives to name a few such as conducting trainings to Proton distributors nationwide, leading certification program to ISO9001, QS 9000, ISO/TS 16949, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001. In addition, he was tasked to lead implementation of Total Quality Management, Total Productive Maintenance and Lean Manufacturing initiatives, and held the Chairmanship of Safety, Health and Environment Committee. He empowered his people to reach their limits, motivated them to give their level best of commitment and performance as individual and toward achieving organization goals.

He is also engaged as external verifier in the development of curriculums for Institute of Product Design & Manufacturing, University Kuala Lumpur and evaluating projects of its final year students.