Brataas received his Ph.D. in physics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 1997. He has been a postdoctoral fellow at TU Delft (1997-1999) and Harvard University (1999-2002) and, since 2002, professor at his alma mater. In 2010-2011, he was on sabbatical leave at Harvard University. 

He was the chairman of the Kavli Prize Committee in Nanoscience (2013-2019), a recipient of the prestigious European Research Council Advanced Grant (2015), and a Divisional Associate Editor of Physical Review Letters (2007-2014). Arne Brataas was the founding director of the Center of Excellence QuSpin (https://www.ntnu.edu/quspin) (2017-2023).

Brataas is an elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (2008), The Royal Norwegian Society of Science and Letters (2007),  the Norwegian Academy of Technological Sciences (2006), an elected fellow of the American Physical Society (2011), and recognized as an Outstanding Referee in the American Physical Society (2015).