Ulrich received an Engineering degree from the University of Stuttgart and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Networks from Telecom Paris.

He conducted research in Computer Science at Centre National d’Etudes des Télécommunications (C.N.E.T.), Issy-Les-Moulineaux, France, and later served as Head of the Computer Science Department at Telecom Paris. In May 1997, he became the Director of EURECOM. Ulrich Finger is a member of IEEE, ACM, and IFIP. He holds nine patents and is the author of numerous papers in leading scientific conferences and journals.

Ulrich retired from EURECOM in May 2022 and stepped down as Board Member.