David Mobley did his undergraduate work in Physics at the University of California, Davis, graduating in 2000. After that he finished a M.S. (2002) and a Ph.D. (2004) in Physics at UCD, doing graduate research in condensed matter theory and biophysics with Daniel L. Cox and Rajiv Singh. Following his Ph.D. he took a position with Ken Dill at the University of California, San Francisco, doing molecular simulations relating to protein-ligand binding and hydration thermodynamics. After his postdoc ended in 2008, he did a brief stint as Chief Science Officer of a startup company (Simprota Corporation) doing contract work designing peptide diagnostics. He then left to join the University of New Orleans in Fall 2008. Then, in 2012, after almost 4 years at UNO, he moved to his current position in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. In January 2013 he also received a joint appointment in the Department of Chemistry at UCI. He was promoted to Professor in 2018.