Dalić was hired by the Croatian finance ministry in 1995 as the head of the macroeconomic forecasting department under Finance Minister Božo Prka.[2] In 1997, she became assistant minister. In 2000, she left the public sector and was employed at Privredna banka Zagreb as chief economist.[2]
After HDZ returned to power following the 2003 election, Dalić returned to the ministry in 2004 and worked at the Central State Strategy Office (Središnji državni ured za strategiju)[2] and was the country's chief negotiator in matters pertaining to financial legislation during Croatia's European Union accession negotiations.
On 22 September 2014, Dalić left HDZ because she believed that the party did not offer a program that would bring Croatia out of the economic crisis. In an open letter she wrote: "Croatia can't handle another unprepared government which deals with itself and only stays on the surface of the problem. For me further participation in such party is impossible because I am now totally convinced that things won't change. HDZ doesn't have enough power or determination to step outside of established political patterns which reduce on a mere repetition that current Government is incompetent, on political criticism day by day and on the constant dealing with the past. The economic team of the HDZ has no coordination, no leadership, no clear direction and specific addressing the real causes of this protracted Croatian crisis."[5]
Dalić resigned as a minister in the Cabinet of Andrej Plenković in May 2018.[6]
