Following in the footsteps of his father, Jean-Léonard Arman, he studied mathematics and received a diploma as a shipbuilder. He became a partner in the family shipyard producing merchant ships and warships for the French and Imperial Russian Navies. Arman invented a method for composite construction using iron and wood for steam-powered ships and was awarded a great medal in the naval and military arts category at the Exposition Universelle of 1855.