After graduation, she worked as an official architect at the Latvian SSR State Institute of Urban Planning (Latvijas PSR Valsts pilsētu celtniecības projektēšanas institūtā). At the same time she is active in the architectural studio Modris Ģelzis (Modra Ģelža darbnīcā) – named after the Latvian architect and the most influential representative of Soviet modernism in Latvia. (1975-1978)
Later she changed her job and became an architect in the collective farm “Soviet Latvia”(kolhozā “Padomju Latvija”) in Riga district, where she worked for ten years. In 1992, she became independent and opened her own architectural office “Zaiga Gaile birojs” Ltd (“Zaigas Gailes birojs”).

Along the way she was a lecturer at several institutions: the Riga Technical University, the Latvian Academy of Arts, the College of Economics and Culture. Abroad, she has given guest lectures, including at the Royal Academy of Arts in Stockholm, at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, in Kazan, Kiev, Moscow and in Edinburgh.

Gaile has been honored with numerous awards for her work. The reconstruction of the production cooperative barn was honored with her first award in 1982, during her ten years of work in the Soviet-Latvian collective farm.
In 2012, Gaile had a memorial museum (Žaņa Lipkes memoriāls) built on Kipsala Island (Riga) for the Jew rescuer Žanis Lipke next to his former house. A year later, on the same island, she was responsible for the design of the reconstruction of the gypsum factory. In the meantime, many other wooden houses on the small island, which used to be the residence of fishermen and dock workers, were restored in the historical style under her responsibility.
In 2013, Zaiga Gaile was  awarded the title of “Riga Citizen of the Year” by the City Council of the capital (Riga). Her contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage and the establishment of the Žanis Lipke Museum remain the city’s landmark to this day.