She was known for her contributions to the understanding of past Southern Ocean dynamics and sea ice as a result of her knowledge of diatom distributions and ecology.

In Year 12 she was selected to participate in a Rotary exchange to a high school in Arkansas, U.S.A.[citation needed] Armand studied biology at Flinders University for her undergraduate degree and, after one false start on an Honours project in Alice Springs, finished an Honours degree at the Australian National University studying vertebrate fossils from Teapot Creek in the southern Monaro region of New South Wales, under the guidance of Australia's grandfather of vertebrate fossils, William David Ride.

She used them to interpret past climate conditions by looking at which types were indicative of warmer or cooler temperatures, and how this represented the advance or retreat of sea ice.

When the offer of a post-doctoral position came up at the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystem Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC),[4] Hobart, Tasmania, Armand, with her family, including a three-month-old son returned, to Australia.

Armand was the first Australian recipient of the European Union's Marie Curie Incoming Fellowship in 2005, where she spent three years studying at the Institut Méditerranéen d' Océanographie, Université Aix-Marseille in collaboration with Prof. Bernard Quéguiner.

She received a U.S. Antarctic Service Medal in 2014 for the Sabrina Coast Mission on the RVIB Palmer and was the first Chief Scientist to conduct a Southern Ocean expedition on Australia’s then-new research ship, RV Investigator, in 2017.