Julien is Professor of the Economics of Social Policy and Director of PSSRU at the University of Kent. Until early 2017 he was also an Associate Professorial Research Fellow within CPEC at LSE. In the past, Julien has been seconded to the King's Fund as project lead for the Wanless social care review and to the Strategy Unit in the Department of Health, providing advice to Ministers on social care and related areas of health policy.

He is an economist and has conducted research in social care for many years.