Danial is a Deputy Executive Director of Academic & Student Affairs at the International Institute of Public Policy and Management (INPUMA), Universiti Malaya (UM). He teaches Master of Public Policy (MPP) and has worked as an Adjunct Professor at the Asia Pacific University (APU) in Bukit Jalil, Malaysia. Danial currently serves as the Secretary of the Malaysian International Studies Association (MyISA) and is an active member of several other international associations. He is also a Fellow of the Research Institute for Indonesia, Thailand, and Singapore at Universiti Utara Malaysia (ITS-UUM), Kedah, Malaysia.

Apart from peer-reviewed works with various international journals, Danial currently serves as an Editorial Board Member for the Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities (UPM Press), SINERGI: Journal of Strategic Studies & International Affairs (UKM Press), and Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) Journal of Social and Political Science (JSP-FISIP) (Indexed in Scopus and WOS).

In addition to his internal supervision and examiner duties, he has served as a supervisor for the Malaysian Armed Force Defence College National University of Malaysia (MAFDC-UKM) program. He has also worked as an external examiner for PhD theses in politics, policy, and security at universities in Malaysia, Australia, Japan, India, Pakistan, and Singapore. Furthermore, he has been involved in various government and industry projects as a consultant, moderator, invited speaker, and public lecturer. Apart from his academic publications, Danial has shared commentaries and participated in interviews on various issues for national and global media.

Danial holds a PhD in International Relations (Political Science) from the University of St. Andrews in the UK. During his doctoral training, he was mentored by the late Professor Ian Taylor, an eminent expert in Africa-Asia Politics and Relations and Critical Political Economy. He also received the UM Bright Spark Fellowship, which helped him pursue his PhD. Furthermore, Danial has conducted extensive fieldwork and study visits in various African and Asian countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt, Sierra Leone, the Former Republic of Yugoslavia, Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Italy, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Danial obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Distinction Honours), majored in International and Strategic Studies and minored in East Asian Studies. He received the Ghazali Shafie Book Prize and Dato Panglima Kinta Yusuf Gold Medal for outstanding performance during the 2007 Graduation Ceremony.

Danial is highly interested in conducting research, teaching, and supervising in the areas related to Global South or Africa-Asia Relations in World Politics, Malaysia's Public and Foreign Policy Analysis, and Peace and Conflict Studies. He has been awarded various prestigious grants such as the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), the National Agency for Anti-Drug Research Grant, the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) of the Malaysian government, and grants of the Sumito Foundation, Japan Foundation and Korean Foundation.