Born in 1969, she graduated from Bielefeld University and received a doctorate in Psychology. Having focused her research at the LMU Munich on questions and findings in industrial and organisational psychology, she submitted her doctoral thesis in 2009.

She began her career in the management of a medium-sized company in Bielefeld, and joined Deutsche Bahn in 1996. Her work took her to Dresden and Frankfurt, until she settled for freight transport in Duisburg/Cologne and Mainz, initially as the Head of Human Resources.

She was soon appointed Head of Production and became spokeswoman for the management of block train transport in Mainz. Subsequently, she held the position of Board Member for Production at the subsidiary, DB Cargo Polska.

In October 2010, Sigrid Nikutta left DB to become Chairperson and Chief Operating Officer at Germany's largest public transport company, Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG). As the first female Chairperson, she made the company operate profitably for the first time.

In late 2019, she was appointed Member of the Management Board of Deutsche Bahn. As CEO of the Mainz-based DB Cargo AG she will also be responsible for operational management.