Arif has extensive experience in taxation areas, specifically in tax audits where he spent most of his career when he worked at the Directorate General of Taxes for 17 years since 1999.

He is a government officer of the Ministry of Finance of Indonesia and since 2016 he has been working as a lecturer at the Polytechnic of State Finance STAN. He did not only teach some tax-related subjects, such as tax audit and income tax, but also public finance and management. His research areas are public policy, tax policy, and tax administration. He has published some journal articles and collaborative books.

Currently, he is pursuing a PhD in Development Studies – his proposed research about the formulation of tax audit policy in Indonesia is supervised by Giulia Mascagni and Martin Hearson.