Xbox VP Departs 3 Months After Joining Asha Sharma’s Team
▼ Summary
– Xbox VP of Engineering Jared Palmer left to join applied AI lab Cognition, announcing the move on X.
– Palmer joined Xbox in October 2024 to advise Asha Sharma on developer tools and infrastructure.
– He was named to Sharma’s leadership team during a May 2024 management shakeup and reported directly to her.
– Cognition, which makes AI coding tool Devin, is valued at over $4 billion and received $21 million from Founders Fund.
– Palmer previously compared the shift from human programming to agentic software development to learning Guitar Hero instead of guitar.
A high-profile Xbox engineering leader is packing up just three months into a new role. Jared Palmer, who was appointed Xbox VP of engineering to directly advise Asha Sharma, has announced his departure for the applied AI startup Cognition. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, that’s understandable. Palmer was brought onboard during a May management reshuffle to overhaul the platform’s developer tools and infrastructure. Now, he’s moving on.
“Personal update: I’ve joined Cognition to lead engineering,” Palmer posted on X today. “I’m grateful to Asha Sharma and everyone at Xbox for an amazing year. Excited for this next chapter with Scott Wu [Cognition cofounder and CEO] and team.” He offered no further explanation for the abrupt exit, though he had only joined Microsoft’s CoreAI team last October.
Palmer was one of several key figures highlighted in an internal memo from Sharma back in May, which detailed a series of personnel changes and promotions. She described him as a “product leader who understands modern development, including where tools can remove friction and help teams move faster.” Her praise continued: “He’s spent his career building developer tools that remove friction and increase productivity. That’s exactly the mindset we want, using technology to support creators.” As part of the engineering team, Palmer would report directly to Sharma, “working directly with me on our most complex product and engineering problems, with a focus on developer tooling, taste, and infrastructure.”
Perhaps those complex problems have already been solved. More likely, Palmer received an offer he couldn’t refuse from Cognition. The startup, which secured $21 million in funding from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund in 2024, now boasts a valuation exceeding $4 billion. Its flagship product is an AI coding tool called Devin, a project that apparently offers more excitement than whatever Xbox’s engineers are currently tackling.
Palmer has previously compared the transition from human programming to agentic software development to people learning how to play Guitar Hero instead of a real guitar. Neither Palmer nor Microsoft responded to requests for comment.
(Source: Kotaku)
