Qubad Talabani is a member of the political bureau of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan political party and supervisor of the General Secretariat of President Mam Jalal. He currently holds the position of Deputy Prime Minister in the Kurdistan Regional Government. This is his second term in the position.

Talabani assumed the position of Deputy Prime Minister for the first time in 2014, during a time when the Kurdistan Region was dealing with difficult challenges. The Kurdistan Region was going through a financial crisis because disagreements with the federal government in Baghdad had seen the latter refuse to send the Kurdish a pre-agreed share of the federal budget. Additionally 2014 was also the year that the extremist group known as the Islamic State took over parts of northern Iraq, also threatening the Kurdistan Region.

During the 2018 elections for the Kurdistan Regional Parliament, Talabani ran on promises of stability, employment opportunities and improved and efficient state services. He received more than 180,000 votes, the highest percentage of all candidates in the region. As a result, he was again appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the ninth cabinet of the region's government.

In every aspect of his work, Talabani believes the government is first and foremost a servant of the Kurdish people, according to the highest standards of contemporary governance. In being this, Talabani believes government officials must rise above partisan political conflicts.

During his tenure as Deputy Prime Minister, Talabani has implemented several strategic projects.

One of the most notable was the biometric registration project for Kurdistan Regional Government employees. This project began during the eighth cabinet. During the ninth cabinet, civil servants received a "Unique Personal Number", or UPN. Previous to this, the Kurdish government had not had enough accurate information on state employees and their salaries.

Previously, in 2012, Talabani had already established the Department of Coordination and Follow-up, as part of the region's seventh cabinet. There, he supervised the monitoring and evaluation of government affairs, as well as facilitating coordination between ministries.

Among other important, recent projects is the state services project, which has helped improve how the state provides citizens services. This project has also reduced unnecessary red tape and helped combat corruption.

Another important project revolves around financial transparency and allows citizens to follow the daily revenues of the Sulaymaniyah and Halabja governorates, and the Raparin and Garmian administrations, online.

Talabani has also championed the recently-launched SmartSuli platform. The platform invites both citizens and experts to help in finding solutions to the city's challenges, with the final objective being to provide better services for all and to make Sulaymaniyah into a "smart city".

Talabani's efforts in these areas are accompanied by staunch support of key social issues in the Kurdistan Region. He has worked to improve the region's legal framework, so that it is easier to combat violence against women. He also always stresses the importance of supporting and celebrating young Kurdish people in whatever sector they're in. Talabani has also helped develop agriculture and tourism in the region.

Talabani regularly expresses his firm belief in freedom of expression and freedom of the press and provides ongoing support to journalists and civil society activists. Together with other decisionmakers in the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraq's federal government, he has worked to address the country's pressing environmental issues, supporting efforts to protect water resources and to combat drought.

Talabani has a degree in mechanical engineering from Kingston University in London.

From 2001 to 2003, Talabani worked as a special assistant to the Representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Washington, and then later as the Deputy Representative.

In 2003, he returned to the Kurdistan Region for a year, during which time he served as a Senior Foreign Relations officer to the coalition forces and the US' Coalition Provisional Authority.

Qubad Talabani returned to the United States in April 2004, where he represented the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Washington. In 2006, with the merger of the Erbil and Sulaymaniyah administrations, he was appointed the first representative of the Kurdistan Region to the United States and he remained in this position until 2012.

During his time in Washington, Talabani established the  Kurdish-American Congressional Caucus, a bipartisan committee focusing on US-Kurdish relations, with the support and participation of 52 members of Congress. Established on May 23, 2008, the committee is a guarantee of the continued friendship between the United States, the Kurdish diaspora in that country, and the Kurdish people in the Kurdistan Region.

Talabani also played an influential role in the establishment of the US-Kurdistan Business Council in November 2011. The Council's mission is to facilitate trade with US companies while also strengthening US private sector investments and relations with the Kurdistan Region.

Talabani was born in 1977 and is the son of Jalal Talabani and Hero Ibrahim Ahmed. His father, Jalal Talabani, the founder of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was President of Iraq between 2005 and 2014. His mother was one of the most prominent intellectuals in the country as well as one of the country's most influential female figures. Talabani grew up in the United Kingdom with his grandparents, the writers and activists Ibrahim Ahmed and Galawezh Ahmed. Both of them played an important role in his upbringing.

The Deputy Prime Minister is also passionate about football and a loyal fan of Manchester United. He is married to lawyer Sherri Kraham, and the couple have two children, Ari and Lara.