YAA Tan Sri Arifin Bin Zakaria began his career as an officer of the Legal and Judicial Service and was appointed Judicial Commissioner on 1 March 1992. After serving as Judicial Commissioner for close to two (2) years, YAA Tan Sri was appointed as High Court Judge on 25 January 1994, Judge of the Court of Appeal on 6 August 2002, Judge of the Federal Court on 17 June 2005 and Chief Judge of Malaya on 18 October 2008. On 12 September 2011, YAA was appointed Chief Justice of The Federal Court, Malaysia.