Microsoft developer tools head Julia Liuson to retire after 34 years
The Microsoft store is seen in Manhattan on March 31, 2026 in New York City.
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for a long time Microsoft Julia Liuson, an executive who leads the software company’s development tools group, told employees she will retire in June and become a consultant.
Liuson joined Microsoft in 1992, the same year as CEO Satya Nadella.
“We will continue to build on the progress already underway to flatten teams, run AI first, and reduce effort,” he wrote in a note.
His departure comes as Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, faces growing competition from startups like Cursor for products that rely on generative AI models to help developers write code.
Microsoft, which has developed relationships with AI model builders Anthropic and OpenAI and is also working to formulate models in-house, is working to make AI a key part of the toolchain that third-party developers can use to build apps and websites.
Cursor’s annual revenue exceeded $2 billion in February. Bloomberg reported. Nadella said 4.7 million people paid for the GitHub Copilot AI development service in January, up 75% year over year.
According to him, Liuson has been the head of Microsoft’s developer division since 2021. LinkedIn profile. He reported to Jay Parikh, a former employee. Meta Manager coming to Microsoft in 2024. Last year, Nadella said Liuson’s team would be part of Parikh’s new CoreAI platform and suite of tools.
In August, Thomas Dohmke, CEO of GitHub, which Microsoft bought for $7.5 billion in 2018, announced his plans to leave. At the time, Parikh told employees that three GitHub executives would report to Liuson.
Liuson said in a memo to employees Wednesday that he would collaborate with Parikh on organizational changes. Liuson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We are grateful for the impact Julia and the broader team are providing for developers and customers, and we are focused on maintaining momentum as we move into the next fiscal year and beyond. Our developer and AI strategy and commitment to our customers will remain intact,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email to CNBC.
Parikh said in his own note that he learned a lot from Liuson in the short time they worked together.
Liuson wrote in 2017 that he came to Microsoft as a developer on Microsoft’s Access database. blog post. He was part of the team that created the first version of Visual Studio, a program in which developers write software. According to a report, she was the first woman to become corporate vice president of development at Microsoft. biography on the company’s website.
