Jared Palmer, who was appointed as VP of Xbox engineering just a couple of months ago by Xbox CEO Asha Sharma, has announced his departure from the company. In a social media post, Palmer has confirmed that he has joined AI company Cognition to head up its engineering team and thanked Sharma and the rest of the Xbox team.
“Personal update: I’ve joined Cognition to lead engineering. I’m grateful to Asha Sharma and everyone at Xbox for an amazing year. Excited for this next chapter with Scott Wu and team.”
Palmer’s appointment as VP of Xbox Engineering from back in May was part of a broader leadership shake-up brought along by Sharma. He was joined by Tim Allen taking on the role of CVP of Xbox Design, Johnathan McKay as Xbox head of Growth, Evan Chaki as Xbox general manager of transformation, and David Schloss as head of Xbox subscriptions and cloud.
“I’ll be focused on building world-class tools, services, and experiences for developers and players across the Xbox ecosystem. Grateful for the opportunity and excited to get to work,” said Palmer about his role at the time. Before joining the Xbox team, he had previously worked with Sharma at Microsoft’s CoreAI division.
“Our goal with this [leadership] change is simple: build a platform that is affordable, personal, and open by staying close to the work and the people we serve,” said Sharma in May.
The leadership changes at Xbox also included several reassignments, like making Jason Ronald – former VP of Xbox gaming devices and ecosystems – “accountable for Project Helix and the Xbox platform”, and former VP of Xbox experiences Jason Beaumont heading up product services and serving as the interim head of engineering.
“Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connection with the community, and address friction for both players and developers,” said Sharma. “Today, we promoted leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the business back on track.”
“As part of this shift, you’ll see us begin to retire features that don’t align with where we’re headed. We will begin winding down Copilot on mobile and will stop development of Copilot on console.”
Palmer’s departure comes less than a month after Sharma announced massive layoffs across Xbox, affecting around 1,600 jobs in the process. In her announcement, she also confirmed that 1,600 more cuts were planned over the course of the fiscal year.
“I know this is painful. These changes will directly affect people who have poured their creativity into building Xbox. Many joined us through acquisitions, while others were recruited here, or sought us out because they loved this industry and loved Xbox. Today’s decisions do not reflect their talent or dedication.”
The layoffs were then followed up with further changes across Xbox, including the appointment of a new chief operating officer for the division in the form of Helen Chiang, who took over the role from 17-year veteran of the company Dave McCarthy.
