After graduating, Turgymbaev served as a detective in the criminal investigation of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Saransk City Executive Committee in the Karaganda Region.
[4] He served that position until he became the Minister on 12 February 2019 after his predecessor Kalmukhanbet Kassymov was appointed as a secretary of the Security Council.
[7][8] During the 2022 Kazakh unrest in January, Turgymbaev, as interior minister helped oversee the police crackdown on nationwide protests and riots that left 238 people dead.
In April 2024, he was arrested on charges of “abuse of power and official authority resulting in grave consequences” relating to the violence.
[9] On August 8, 2024, by the verdict of the Interdistrict Criminal Court of Astana, Turgymbaev was sentenced to 5 years of suspended imprisonment.