Arrivabene's professional background was in marketing and sales. In 1997 he joined Philip Morris International, the tobacco conglomerate whose Marlboro brand had been one of the most prominent sponsors in Formula One for decades. He rose steadily through the organisation, becoming Vice President of Marlboro Global Communication and Promotions in 2007 and Vice President of Consumer Channel Strategy and Event Marketing in 2011. Through his oversight of Philip Morris's Ferrari sponsorship he became deeply embedded in the Formula One paddock, and from 2010 he sat on the Formula One Commission as a representative of the sport's commercial sponsors — giving him direct experience of the governance structures and commercial relationships that shape the championship.
On 23 November 2014 Ferrari announced that Arrivabene had been appointed team principal, replacing Marco Mattiacci, who had himself only been in the role since April 2014 after Stefano Domenicali's departure. The decision was made by new Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne, who cited Arrivabene's thorough understanding of Ferrari and of the governance mechanisms of the sport as reasons for the appointment. The installation of Arrivabene was part of Marchionne's broader restructuring of Ferrari's racing operation after the removal of long-serving chairman Luca di Montezemolo.
Arrivabene led Ferrari through four full seasons — 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. During that period the team was competitive with Sebastian Vettel as lead driver, mounting genuine championship challenges in 2017 and 2018 before ultimately losing both titles to Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. The 2018 season ended with Ferrari surrendering a mid-season advantage in what became a recurring narrative of reliability and strategic errors, and on 7 January 2019 Ferrari announced that Arrivabene was replaced as team principal by former technical director Mattia Binotto.
Outside motorsport, Arrivabene served as an independent board member of Italian football club Juventus FC from 2012. He later took on the role of CEO of Juventus. On 28 November 2022 the entire Juventus board of directors resigned amid the Plusvalenza scandal, which involved alleged irregular accounting of player valuations. In January 2023 Arrivabene was suspended for two years from holding office in Italian football as punishment for his role in the capital gain violations.
Arrivabene and Ulrika Eriksson met in Madonna di Campiglio in 1986 and were married from 1990 until 1995. As of May 2021 he was married to Stefania Bocchi.
Arrivabene's tenure at Ferrari occupies a particular place in the team's modern history: he presided over a genuine resurgence in competitiveness after years of decline, rebuilding team morale and culture under Marchionne's demanding oversight, but ultimately could not deliver the constructors' or drivers' championship that Ferrari's ambitions required. His background — entirely in marketing and commercial operations rather than engineering — made him an unusual choice for a role in which technical decisions carry enormous weight, yet his deep familiarity with Ferrari's culture and the political landscape of Formula One gave him credibility within the paddock that a purely external appointment might have lacked.