Claude-France Arnould is special advisor to the President for European Affairs at the French institute of international relations (IFRI) . Until July 2020, she was a diplomatic adviser to the government, at the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. In this context, she was entrusted with a mission regarding space. From October 2015 to July 2019, she was Ambassador of France to the Kingdom of Belgium.
From January 2011 to January 2015, she was Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency. She was afterwards Special Envoy for Space at the European External Action Service. From 2009 to 2010, Claude-France Arnould headed the Crisis Management and Planning Directorate at the Council of the European Union, after being director for defence matters at the Council of the European Union since 2001. From 1998 to 2001, Claude-France Arnould was Director of International and Strategic Affairs at the General Secretariat of National Defence. Previously she served as First Counselor at the French Embassy in Germany (1994-1998). She worked in particular on Community issues as deputy director in the economic department and then in the European cooperation department at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1994 and in the cabinet of the Minister for European Affairs in 1986. From 1987 to 1989 Claude-France was Secretary General of the National School of Administration (ENA).
Minister plenipotentiary, Claude-France Arnould is a former student of the Ecole normale supérieure and the National School of Administration in France, holds an  aggregation of classical letters and a Bachelor of art and archeology. She is a graduate of the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. She was elected correspondent of the Air and Space Academy since September 2020.
Commandeur of the French Legion of Honor and officer of the National Order of Merit, Claude-France Arnould received the Grand Cross of the order of the Crown of Belgium, the Bundesverdienstkreuz Erster Klasse of Germany and the Gran Cruz del Mérito Militar of Spain.