Xbox engineering VP leaves after two months

Xbox Vice President of Engineering Jared Palmer has left Microsoft just over two months after joining the division’s leadership team. Palmer has moved to AI company Cognition, where he will lead its engineering organization.

His departure follows a short period working directly with Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. Microsoft has not publicly announced a replacement or explained how Palmer’s responsibilities will be divided.

Palmer announced that he had joined Cognition in a brief post on X. He thanked Sharma and the Xbox team but did not explain why he decided to leave Microsoft so soon after taking the role.

Cognition develops Devin, an AI software engineering tool designed to plan, write, test and deploy code. Palmer’s new position brings him back to a field that has shaped much of his recent career.

Palmer joined the Xbox leadership team in May 2026 as Vice President of Engineering and technical adviser to Sharma. He was expected to work with the Xbox CEO on difficult product and engineering issues across the division.

His work was set to focus on developer tools, infrastructure and the wider Xbox platform. The position was part of a leadership change that brought several executives from Microsoft’s CoreAI group into Xbox.

Palmer’s LinkedIn profile lists his Xbox position from May to July 2026. That makes his time in the role unusually short, especially because he had been appointed during an important period for Xbox’s platform plans.

The company is working on changes across console hardware, PC gaming, cloud services and developer tools. Palmer was expected to help shape some of those technical projects before leaving for Cognition.

Before moving to Xbox, Palmer served as Vice President of Product in Microsoft’s CoreAI division. Sharma also led CoreAI before becoming head of Xbox, meaning the two executives had already worked within the same Microsoft organization.

Palmer previously spent several years at Vercel, where he worked as Vice President of AI. His move to Cognition continues that focus on artificial intelligence and software development tools.

Microsoft and Sharma have not publicly commented on who will take over Palmer’s work. The other executives appointed during the May leadership changes remain in their positions.

Palmer’s exit leaves Xbox without one of the engineering leaders brought in to support its latest platform changes. Cognition now lists him as its Vice President of Engineering.