During his military career he served in leadership positions in the infantry and mechanical infantry, then became commander of a tactical formation, and was appointed General Director of the military intelligence and reconnaissance department (DIM) of Ministry of Defence (MoD).

[1] In 2004, President Mubarak appointed him as the Head of the Administrative Control Authority (ACA), a governmental agency set up in 1964 which specialized in combating corruption.

After the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état, acting president Adly Mansour announced on July 4, 2013, that Fareed would be appointed the new Director of the General Intelligence, reportedly "one of the most powerful positions in Egypt",[1] replacing Mohamed Raafat Shehata.

[2] Critic Hossam Bahgat has complained that the claimed corruption charges against Fareed disappeared following the coup.

[1] According to journalist David D. Kirkpatrick, critics describe him as an influential opponent of any reconciliation with the Muslim Brotherhood or Islamists, and claim that his return as signaling a "restoration" of the old pre-revolutionary order in Egypt.