Prior to joining the University of Illinois in 2012, he was employed for five years as Program Manager, based in Shanghai, of Canada-China AIDS Collaborative Research Project funded by International Development Research Center, and one year as Associate Professor at Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China. In 2007, Jinma received his PhD in Epidemiology and Health Statistics in Beijing where he, as a key investigator, participated in the Research on Unexplained Sudden Cardiac Death in Yunan, China funded by Chinese Ministry of Science and Chinese Ministry of Health.