James Devine

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT JAMES DEVINE

Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft with a decade of experience shipping technology that reaches millions of people. I hold a PhD in Computer Science from Lancaster University and have spent my career at the intersection of embedded systems, IoT security, and developer tooling — building things that genuinely matter at scale- Queen Elizabeth Prize for Education (2025) — awarded by HRH King Charles for contributions to educational technology- BBC micro:bit — co-wrote the micro:bit runtime, a lightweight embedded operating system now used by over 70 million children worldwide via Microsoft MakeCode and MicroPython- Azure Sphere — leading the OS and tooling team for Microsoft\'s end-to-end IoT security platform- Jacdac (https://aka.ms/jacdac) — designed and built a plug-and-play networking protocol for microcontrollers from the physical layer up; now integrated in shipping products from Microsoft, Elecfreaks, Kittenbot, and Forward Education- Lead Project MakeAccessible, which set out to make it easier for people to build custom accessibility devices through using MakeCode and Jacdac Published research at top-tier venues including PLDI, UbiComp (Best Paper), and CHII lead engineering teams and shape technical direction across hardware, firmware, and software — from writing a production systemd daemon in Rust to defining the architecture of a physical computing protocol adopted across multiple continents. I champion an AI-first engineering culture and have measurably improved team productivity and delivery velocity.Earlier in my career I conducted research at Microsoft Research in both Cambridge and Redmond, translating prototype ideas into products used at global scale. I\'ve collaborated closely with partners including ARM, Samsung, Farnell, and the BBC, and coordinated distributed hackathons with over 80 participants across four continents- Principal Software Engineer, Microsoft (Azure Sphere — IoT security platform)- PhD, Computer Science — Lancaster University- BSc, Computer Science (First Class Hons) — Lancaster University- Microsoft Research PhD ScholarI\'m passionate about lowering the barrier to entry for hardware innovation and making technology accessible to everyone — from professional engineers building critical infrastructure to children encountering computing for the very first time.