Streiffer began his career at North Carolina State University as a research assistant professor. In 1998, he moved to Argonne National Laboratory as a researcher in the Materials Science Division. He was awarded the status of Fellow by the American Physical Society in 2007, for "experimental studies of ferroelectric thin film physics, that have established the relationships between epitaxial strain, ferroelectric phase transition behavior and domain structure, and size effects, and for advancing the fundamental understanding of complex oxide thin film microstructure."