Inside Microsoft's HR Restructure

Microsoft is revamping its HR team. 

In a memo to employees Chief People Officer Amy Coleman shared that, as organisational structures evolve, the company’s HR function needs to evolve alongside it to scale for adaptability and help to set a new pace for Microsoft.

She wrote: “To accelerate the business, we have to simultaneously build experiences that reflect how employees and leaders actually work today and that anticipate their needs tomorrow.”

The changes include a series of promotions and the departure of Lindsay-Rae McIntyre, Chief Diversity Officer of Microsoft, who is taking on a Chief People Officer role at another company.

An HR restructure

Several promotions have been announced in Microsoft’s HR team.

Mel Simpson will be leading the company’s newly created engineering HR function to improve the team’s ability to align with product priorities, while Mike Cyran will lead the company’s compensation and benefits strategy as Corporate Vice President of Total Rewards. 

Amy also announced that the company is in the final stages of hiring a Global Talent Acquisition leader to help the company develop its talent strategy – saying that Microsoft’s “ability to win,” hinges on the people the company is hiring. 

She wrote that the company’s talent acquisition strategy “needs a single owner who is fully dedicated to helping the business scale, move faster and make the right calls in an increasingly competitive, high-pressure market.”

Workforce acceleration

Alongside these changes, the company has announced it is creating a dedicated workforce acceleration team, designed to improve the company’s upskilling, reskilling and redeployment strategies. 

This is particularly important, Amy says, due to the "emerging human-agent collaboration,” in business. 

“We're in a time when technology, the way we work, and our org structures are all evolving,” she writes. 

Justin Thenutai will lead this newly created team as VP of Workforce Acceleration, with the company’s Learning and Skilling team reporting directly to him. 

Amy says: “Bringing these levers together under one leader allows us to test and learn faster with the business, so we can scale what works and win in our next chapter.”

Workplace transformation under Amy Coleman

Amy became Chief People Officer of Microsoft in 2025, having previously held the role of Executive Vice President of Strategy and Transformation at the company. 

In that time, she has led several key initiatives for the company – including a return to office mandate that requires employees to come into the office three days per week. 

When announcing this decision in a memo to employees, Amy said: “Our goal with this change is to provide more clarity and consistency in how we come together, while maintaining the flexibility we know you value. 

“We want you to continue to shape your schedule in ways that work best for you, making in-person time intentional and impactful.”

The company’s HR function is evolving alongside wider workplace transformation – particularly in regards to AI. 

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has said in a letter to shareholders that AI is “radically changing,” the way companies operate, “and we are changing with it.”

These changes will likely include increases in the number of people the company employs, Satya shared on the Brad Gerstner BG2 podcast. 

He said:  “I will say we will grow our headcount, but the way I look at it is, that headcount we grow will grow with a lot more leverage than the headcount we had pre-AI.”