diff --git a/arrow/src/buffer/mod.rs b/arrow/src/buffer/mod.rs
index cf0461b5f536..ad5111ca52aa 100644
--- a/arrow/src/buffer/mod.rs
+++ b/arrow/src/buffer/mod.rs
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ pub use immutable::*;
 mod mutable;
 pub use mutable::*;
 mod ops;
+mod scalar;
 pub use ops::*;
 
 use crate::error::{ArrowError, Result};
diff --git a/arrow/src/buffer/scalar.rs b/arrow/src/buffer/scalar.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3de58a982050
--- /dev/null
+++ b/arrow/src/buffer/scalar.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
+use crate::buffer::Buffer;
+use crate::datatypes::ArrowNativeType;
+use std::ops::Deref;
+
+/// Provides a safe API for interpreting a [`Buffer`] as a slice of [`ArrowNativeType`]
+///
+/// # Safety
+///
+/// All [`ArrowNativeType`] are valid for all possible backing byte representations, and as
+/// a result they are "trivially safely transmutable".
+pub struct ScalarBuffer<T: ArrowNativeType> {
+    #[allow(unused)]
+    buffer: Buffer,
+    // Borrows from `buffer` and is valid for the lifetime of `buffer`
+    ptr: *const T,
+    // The length of this slice
+    len: usize,
+}
+
+impl<T: ArrowNativeType> ScalarBuffer<T> {
+    /// Create a new [`ScalarBuffer`] from a [`Buffer`], and an `offset`
+    /// and `length` in units of `T`
+    ///
+    /// # Panics
+    ///
+    /// This method will panic if
+    ///
+    /// * `offset` or `len` would result in overflow
+    /// * `buffer` is not aligned to a multiple of `std::mem::size_of::<T>`
+    /// * `bytes` is not large enough for the requested slice
+    pub fn new(buffer: Buffer, offset: usize, len: usize) -> Self {
+        let size = std::mem::size_of::<T>();
+        let offset_len = offset.checked_add(len).expect("length overflow");
+        let start_bytes = offset.checked_mul(size).expect("start bytes overflow");
+        let end_bytes = offset_len.checked_mul(size).expect("end bytes overflow");
+
+        let bytes = &buffer.as_slice()[start_bytes..end_bytes];
+
+        // SAFETY: all byte sequences correspond to a valid instance of T
+        let (prefix, offsets, suffix) = unsafe { bytes.align_to::<T>() };
+        assert!(
+            prefix.is_empty() && suffix.is_empty(),
+            "buffer is not aligned to {} byte boundary",
+            size
+        );
+
+        let ptr = offsets.as_ptr();
+        Self { buffer, ptr, len }
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T: ArrowNativeType> Deref for ScalarBuffer<T> {
+    type Target = [T];
+
+    fn deref(&self) -> &Self::Target {
+        // SAFETY: Bounds checked in constructor and ptr is valid for the lifetime of self
+        unsafe { std::slice::from_raw_parts(self.ptr, self.len) }
+    }
+}
+
+impl<T: ArrowNativeType> AsRef<[T]> for ScalarBuffer<T> {
+    fn as_ref(&self) -> &[T] {
+        self
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_basic() {
+        let expected = [0_i32, 1, 2];
+        let buffer = Buffer::from_iter(expected.iter().cloned());
+        let typed = ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer.clone(), 0, 3);
+        assert_eq!(*typed, expected);
+
+        let typed = ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer.clone(), 1, 2);
+        assert_eq!(*typed, expected[1..]);
+
+        let typed = ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer.clone(), 1, 0);
+        assert!(typed.is_empty());
+
+        let typed = ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer, 3, 0);
+        assert!(typed.is_empty());
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic(expected = "buffer is not aligned to 4 byte boundary")]
+    fn test_unaligned() {
+        let expected = [0_i32, 1, 2];
+        let buffer = Buffer::from_iter(expected.iter().cloned());
+        let buffer = buffer.slice(1);
+        ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer, 0, 2);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic(expected = "range end index 16 out of range for slice of length 12")]
+    fn test_length_out_of_bounds() {
+        let buffer = Buffer::from_iter([0_i32, 1, 2]);
+        ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer, 1, 3);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic(expected = "range end index 16 out of range for slice of length 12")]
+    fn test_offset_out_of_bounds() {
+        let buffer = Buffer::from_iter([0_i32, 1, 2]);
+        ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer, 4, 0);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic(expected = "length overflow")]
+    fn test_length_overflow() {
+        let buffer = Buffer::from_iter([0_i32, 1, 2]);
+        ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer, usize::MAX, 1);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic(expected = "start bytes overflow")]
+    fn test_start_overflow() {
+        let buffer = Buffer::from_iter([0_i32, 1, 2]);
+        ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer, usize::MAX / 4 + 1, 0);
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    #[should_panic(expected = "end bytes overflow")]
+    fn test_end_overflow() {
+        let buffer = Buffer::from_iter([0_i32, 1, 2]);
+        ScalarBuffer::<i32>::new(buffer, 0, usize::MAX / 4 + 1);
+    }
+}