Microsoft today announced that Jay Parikh, a technology visionary and longtime industry leader, is joining its senior leadership team. Parikh most recently served as CEO of Lacework, but he gained widespread recognition during his tenure at Meta as VP, Head of Engineering and Infrastructure, which spanned over a decade.
At Meta, Parikh"s team was responsible for building the cloud infrastructure that supported services for billions of people. Their work encompassed data centers, servers, networking, subsea cables, and more. Parikh was also involved in notable industry initiatives such as the Open Compute Project and the Telecom Infra Project. Prior to Meta, Parikh held positions at Ning and Akamai Technologies. He is listed as an inventor on over 20 US patents and has served on the board of Atlassian since 2013.
While Parikh will be joining Microsoft"s senior leadership team, a specific role has not yet been assigned to him. Microsoft plans to provide further details regarding his role and responsibilities in the coming months. In the meantime, Parikh will be immersing himself in Microsoft"s priorities and culture by connecting with senior leaders and engaging with customers, partners, and employees.
Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, sent the following email to Microsoft employees regarding Jay Parikh"s hiring:
When I look to the next phase of Microsoft, both in terms of our scale and our massive opportunity ahead, it’s clear that we need to continue adding exceptional talent at every level of the organization to increase our depth and capability across our business priorities – spanning security, quality, and AI innovation.
With that context, I’m excited to share that Jay Parikh is joining Microsoft as a member of the senior leadership team (SLT), reporting to me. Jay was the global head of engineering at Facebook (now Meta) and most recently was CEO of Lacework. He has an impressive track record, with a unique combination of experiences building and scaling technical teams that serve both commercial customers and consumers. His deep connections across the start-up and VC ecosystems, coupled with his leadership roles at Akamai and Ning, will bring valuable perspective to Microsoft.
Over the years I’ve known Jay, I’ve admired him as a technology leader and respected engineer with a deep commitment to driving innovation and striving for operational excellence. His focus extends beyond technology, with his passion for and dedication to developing people, fostering a strong culture, and building world-class talent, all in service of delivering faster value to customers and driving business growth. In fact, there are very few leaders in our industry with Jay’s experience in leading teams through the rapid growth and scale required to support today’s largest internet businesses.
As he onboards, Jay will immerse himself in learning about our company priorities and our culture and will spend time connecting with our senior leaders and meeting with customers, partners, and employees around the world. We will share more on his role and focus in the next few months.
Please join me in welcoming Jay to Microsoft.
Satya
This strategic hire signals Microsoft"s continued commitment to innovation and growth in the technology industry. Parikh"s expertise will likely be invaluable as Microsoft further develops its cloud offerings and expands its reach to billions of people.