Barbara Resch was born on January 31, 1975, in Schongau, Bavaria. In 1991 she began her apprenticeship as a communications electronics technician in medical technology at Agfa in Peißenberg.

During her training, she took on roles as an active trade unionist of IG Metall and the Young People and Trainee Council. At the age of 26 in the beginning of 2001, she started to work full-time as trade union officer in the IG Metall local office in Weilheim. In 2010, she moved to the IG Metall local office in Schweinfurt, where she was elected as president in 2014. In May 2016, she became the team leader for collective agreement policy initially for the IG Metall regional office in Bavaria and in Baden-Württemberg by the end of 2018. Since February 2024 Barbara Resch is the District Manager of IG Metall in Baden-Württemberg.

In addition to her career, she earned a degree as a certified management expert from the Open University Hagen and expanded her management experience at the Institute for business administration at the University of St. Gallen and Steinbeis University Management School.

Barbara Resch member of supervisory boards or comparable control bodies that are legally required in following companies:

• Mercedes-Benz Group AG (listed)
• Mercedes-Benz AG (further mandate within Mercedes-Benz Group; not listed)
• ZF Friedrichshafen AG
• Rheinmetall AG (listed)
• ElringKlinger AG (listed)
• Daimler Truck AG (group mandate; not listed)
   

She is also member of many economic and political bodies in Germany and the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.