Xbox VP Jared Palmer Resigns to Lead Cognition Engineering

Jared Palmer resigned as Vice President of Engineering at Xbox on July 21, 2026, to lead the engineering team at the AI startup Cognition. Palmer's departure comes just two months after Asha Sharma, the CEO of Xbox, appointed him in May to advise on technical infrastructure, developer tooling, and product experience. Palmer previously worked with Sharma on Microsoft's CoreAI team before moving into the gaming division.

Palmer joins Cognition, an AI lab valued at over $4 billion and backed by Founders Fund, which developed the autonomous software engineer tool Devin. While his exit creates a leadership gap in the gaming division's technical overhaul, there is no public evidence that the move was driven by dissatisfaction with the company.

This leadership change occurs amid a broader restructuring at Xbox initiated by Sharma, which included the appointment of several new executives and the naming of Helen Chiang as Chief Operating Officer. The shakeup coincides with a period of significant workforce instability, including a layoff effort that cut approximately 1,600 jobs with another 1,600 cuts planned for the remainder of the fiscal year. Sharma has stated a goal to build a more affordable, personal, and open platform, which includes retiring features that no longer align with the company's direction, such as Copilot on console and mobile.