Technical Program & Organizational Leadership
I build the systems behind complex technology organizations.
I’m Caesar Filori. My career spans AI, advanced research, global digital platforms, AAA product development, and consumer technology. The common thread is simple: I find the friction that keeps talented teams from moving, then build the operating model, tooling, visibility, and decision systems that help the whole organization work better.
Greater Seattle Area · Microsoft AI · 20+ years across technology, research, platforms, and games
Impact at a glance
Not a list of vanity metrics. These are examples of the scale, ambiguity, and organizational complexity I’ve been asked to make easier to operate.
Selected work
The details change by company. The work tends to repeat: expose the real constraint, create a better system, make the decisions visible, and leave the organization with a capability that lasts.
Microsoft AI · Operating model
Turning an AI tools portfolio into an operating system
A fast-growing tools ecosystem had fragmented intake, ownership, review, and delivery patterns. I redesigned the operating model across 50+ AI tools and 12 workstreams, partnering with engineering on playbooks, asynchronous reviews, and clearer decision paths.
Outcome: approximately 50% improvement in intake and development efficiency.
Microsoft AI · AI enablement
Using AI to reduce the cost of operating AI
I designed and built an internal Copilot-based agent to move repeatable program guidance and review work into self-service, reducing dependence on meetings and one-to-one explanations.
Outcome: more than 50% reduction in synchronous review overhead.
Microsoft AI · Responsible AI
Making compliance executable
Legal, Safety, Policy, Regulatory, and engineering requirements needed a practical execution layer. I created the intake, ownership, governance, and delivery mechanisms that translated requirements into coordinated work.
Outcome: nine critical compliance initiatives delivered in six weeks.
Microsoft AI · Executive visibility
A single view of platform readiness
I identified a gap in how leaders could see engineering health, quality, ownership, delivery risk, incidents, and readiness. I pitched, designed, and built a multidimensional health system, then drove adoption through executive presentations and leadership roadshows.
Outcome: a shared decision system integrated into broader Copilot planning.
31st Union / 2K · Organizational scale
Building a studio operating model for creative complexity
I led a team of Senior Development Managers and 100+ global contributors while rebuilding planning, milestones, dependencies, capacity, risk, intake, triage, and executive review systems for a new AAA IP.
Outcome: clearer ownership, stronger cross-functional decision making, and more predictable readiness for major publishing milestones.
Meta Reality Labs · Research operations
Scaling advanced research without turning it into bureaucracy
I built portfolio planning, prioritization, resource, risk, evaluation, and technology-transfer mechanisms across machine learning, perception, personalized audio, human-data evaluation, research tooling, and prototype systems.
Outcome: sustained visibility and execution across a research organization that grew to 70+ people across 12 technical tracks.
Nike · Global platforms
Moving from bespoke digital work to reusable capability
I helped unify the operating model and platform approach for global digital brand experiences, connecting engineering, design, content, agencies, and regional teams across 40+ markets.
Outcome: approximately 20% improvement in platform engineering efficiency while enabling faster global campaign execution.
Xbox · Product strategy
Creating the alignment to keep a product alive
On Ascend, I helped reframe product and execution strategy, translating risk and opportunity into an executive narrative that could support a larger investment decision.
Outcome: approximately $10M in additional investment and a launch exceeding one million players.
Career
A progression through AI, research, gaming, and digital platforms, with the same underlying work: connecting strategy to execution at organizational scale.
2025–Present
Senior Technical Program Manager, Consumer Copilot
Microsoft AI
Cross-functional technical program leadership spanning AI Tools, Developer Experience, Responsible AI, AI Safety, Strategy & Operations, AI Economy, subscriptions, and data supply.
- Redesigned the AI Tools operating model across 50+ tools and 12 workstreams.
- Built AI-powered workflows and an internal Copilot agent to reduce operating friction.
- Created execution frameworks across Responsible AI, Safety, Legal, Policy, and Regulatory teams.
- Designed executive health and readiness systems for platform-level decision making.
2022–2025
Director of Product Development
31st Union / 2K Games
Product-development and organizational leadership for a global AAA studio building a new IP.
- Led a team of Senior Development Managers and 100+ global contributors across technical and creative disciplines.
- Rebuilt the studio operating model across roadmaps, milestones, dependencies, capacity, risk, and executive reviews.
- Served as a primary interface between Product Development, studio leadership, publishing, recruiting, and support organizations.
- Directed readiness for a 10,000+ participant global community playtest.
2017–2022
Technical Program Manager, Research
Meta Reality Labs
Research operations and technical program leadership across Audio Research and Applied Perception Science.
- Supported growth from roughly 10 to 70+ researchers, engineers, product managers, and partners across 12 technical tracks.
- Led portfolio planning and execution for 60+ advanced research initiatives.
- Built intake, prioritization, evaluation, resourcing, and research-to-product transfer mechanisms.
- Worked across machine learning, perception, personalized audio, human-data evaluation, prototypes, and AR/VR technologies.
2014–2017
Program Director / Director, Brand Technical Enablement
Nike
Global digital platform and consumer technology leadership across 40+ markets.
- Led platform strategy, resourcing, governance, and delivery for reusable web, mobile, retail, and event experiences.
- Built the Brand Technical Enablement model connecting Digital Brand, platform engineering, agencies, and regions.
- Supported global digital experiences around Air Max, the Olympics, NBA All-Star, and the Super Bowl.
2004–2014
Senior Producer / Audio Director
Microsoft Studios / Xbox
A decade of production, publishing, technical coordination, and creative leadership across Xbox and Windows.
- Worked across franchises including Gears of War, Mass Effect, Alan Wake, Lips, Toy Soldiers, and Ascend.
- Led multimillion-dollar initiatives from concept and greenlight through development and launch.
- Secured executive alignment for approximately $10M in additional Ascend investment.
Earlier
Production & Game Development
Electronic Arts and earlier industry roles
Early career in game production and development, building the foundation for later work across product delivery, creative organizations, and technology leadership.
How I lead
I’m not interested in process for its own sake. Good operations should remove friction, improve decisions, and make teams more capable without making them more dependent on the person who designed the system.
If success depends on one person remembering everything, the system is unfinished.
Structure should accelerate teams, not become another thing they have to fight.
Dashboards and metrics matter when they improve decisions, not when they merely report activity.
Complex programs fail at the seams. I spend a lot of time making those seams visible and workable.
The best transformation keeps creating value after the original problem is solved.
Capabilities
Areas where I’ve repeatedly operated, built systems, or led cross-functional work. This is intentionally broader than a traditional resume keyword list.
AI Program LeadershipTechnical Program ManagementOperating Model DesignAI Tooling & AutomationResponsible AIAI Safety ExecutionDeveloper ExperiencePortfolio StrategyExecutive ReadinessOrganizational DesignCross-Org DependenciesAdvanced Research OperationsResearch-to-Product TransferExperimentationHuman-Data EvaluationGlobal Platform ProgramsProduct DevelopmentManager LeadershipExecutive CommunicationsPlanning & GovernanceRisk & ReadinessLean / Iterative Delivery
“The job is usually not to add more process. It’s to make the right decisions easier to see and easier to make.”
Let’s talk.
I’m most useful in environments where the technology is complex, the organization is moving quickly, and the operating model needs to catch up with the ambition.