Microsoft’s executive shake-up continues as developer division chief resigns

Microsoft is losing another veteran executive. Julia Liuson, head of Microsoft’s developer division (DevDiv), is resigning from the software giant after 34 years. Liuson spent the past 12 years leading Microsoft’s developer business, during a period Microsoft focused more on open-source projects and acquired GitHub for $7.5 billion.

Liuson will continue as head of DevDiv until the end of June, and then move to an “advisory role” reporting to Microsoft CoreAI chief Jay Parikh, according to an internal memo seen by The Verge. It’s not immediately clear who will replace Liuson, or whether the DevDiv team will simply report up to Parikh in the coming months instead.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and in January I shared with Satya [Nadella] and Jay [Parikh] that the timing feels right for me to take this step,” says Liuson in her memo. “I am proud of how DevDiv is recognized as one of the most customer-obsessed teams, and we are known for delivering product truth where customers choose to use our product.”

Liuson’s departure comes less than a year after the resignation of former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke. Microsoft never replaced Dohmke’s CEO position, and the rest of GitHub’s leadership team now reports directly to Microsoft’s CoreAI team. Liuson was responsible for overseeing GitHub revenue, engineering, and support after Dohmke’s departure.

Liuson is the latest in a line of executive departures at Microsoft in recent months. Former Xbox chief Phil Spencer also announced his retirement from Microsoft in February, along with former Xbox president Sarah Bond resigning from the company. Microsoft’s head of experiences and devices, Rajesh Jha, then announced his own retirement from Microsoft last month, after more than 35 years at the company.

Jha’s departure triggered a flattening of Microsoft’s upper management of products like Windows and Office, allowing the leaders of these divisions to report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Microsoft also appointed a new Copilot boss last month, with changes that saw Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman focus on the company’s own AI Models instead of working directly on the assistant-like features of Copilot for consumers.