JO

Jean-François (Jeff) Omhover

AI Product & Platform Leader

📍 Seattle, WA

About Me

I ship things AI. I build AI products and platforms that ship at scale while getting the technical details right. My academic background—PhD supervision, €10M+ research coordination, multi-organization consortium leadership—gives me the technical depth to architect complex systems and the partner alignment skills to coordinate competing stakeholders toward shared outcomes.

My product experience proves I can lead cross-functional teams and deliver on deadline. I thrive in the space between research rigor, creativity, and product velocity: from orchestrating multi-partner research consortiums, to coordinating 20+ stakeholders across Engineering and Legal through major product launches at Microsoft Build and Ignite.

Career Highlights

2017 - Present

Microsoft

Principal Product Manager (2024 - Present)

  • Drove steel-thread validation for Azure AI Studio GA user scenarios at Build 2024, coordinating cross-team end-to-end runs
  • Led UX design and launched GitHub Models marketplace free-tier enabling 100M+ developers to experiment with Llama, GPT-4o, Phi, Mistral models
  • Squad lead coordinating ~20 people across Engineering, UX, Legal, Privacy to ship Ask AI assistant through Build and Ignite 2025

Principal Applied Scientist, Manager (2020 - 2023)

  • Lead architect for federated learning on AzureML launched at Build 2023—designed privacy-preserving ML architecture, built open-source accelerator, managed funnel of customer prospects
  • Led platform migration for internal ML teams, designing an SDK becoming a standard library for reproducible, compliant ML workflows
  • Supported Microsoft internal teams to grow adoption of Azure OpenAI fine-tuning for production use cases
  • Coached and developed team of 7-9 junior-senior data scientists embedded with product teams

Senior Data Scientist (2017 - 2020)

  • Stimulated and grew the practice of A/B testing in two internal product teams
  • Implemented Azure-based component for near real-time analysis for fast fail detection (3000+/month)
2016 - 2017

Galvanize, Seattle

Instructor, Senior Data Scientist

  • Delivered comprehensive 12-week Data Science Immersive bootcamp covering Python, statistics, ML algorithms, NLP, deep learning, Spark, and AWS deployment
  • Led curriculum design and video production for Galvanize-IBM Cognitive Builder online course, creating all materials from scratch in 3-month timeline
  • Adapted bootcamp curriculum for enterprise training and created 2-day Apache Spark workshop
2005 - 2016

Arts et Métiers ParisTech, Paris

Associate Professor (Maître de Conférences), Computer Science

  • Led machine learning research at LCPI lab applying computational intelligence to product design optimization and innovation processes
  • Coordinated €10M+ portfolio of collaborative research projects (ANR, European FP7) managing consortium partnerships, budget compliance, and scientific deliverables
  • Supervised 8 PhD students to completion plus 5+ Master students annually across ML applications in design, IoT, and organizational innovation
  • Delivered 192+ hours annually of lectures and seminars across undergraduate through doctoral levels

Industrial Consultant, Institut Carnot ARTS (2005 - 2015)

  • Led business development identifying French industrial clients (SMEs, manufacturing firms) requiring advanced ML/IT capabilities
  • Negotiated and structured collaborative R&D agreements defining scope, deliverables, IP ownership with industrial partners
  • Executed 1-2 applied research projects annually (€10-40K each) translating industrial problems into ML solutions

Areas of Expertise

Leadership

  • Cross-functional team leadership (20+ stakeholders)
  • Multi-organization research coordination
  • Customer funnel management and MVP delivery
  • Team growth and mentorship

AI Platforms

  • Generative AI product development
  • Agentic AI systems architecture
  • Privacy-preserving ML (federated learning)
  • MLOps/LLMOps infrastructure

Technical Execution

  • Prompt engineering and RAG systems
  • Azure OpenAI and model deployment
  • CI/CD pipeline and evaluation frameworks
  • Python, Bicep, IaaC

Background

Born and raised in France, I spent over a decade in French academia as an Associate Professor at Arts et Métiers ParisTech, one of France's prestigious Grandes Écoles for engineering. My academic work focused on applying machine learning to industrial design and manufacturing challenges, bridging theoretical research with practical applications.

In 2016, I made the leap from academia to industry and relocated to Seattle to join Galvanize as an instructor and curriculum designer. This transition allowed me to combine my passion for teaching with hands-on industry experience, preparing aspiring data scientists for real-world challenges.

Since 2017, I've been at Microsoft, where I've evolved from Senior Data Scientist to Principal Product Manager. This journey has given me a unique perspective that spans academic research, hands-on data science, people leadership, and product strategy—allowing me to bridge technical depth with business impact.

Beyond Work

Outside of my professional life, I'm a father, maker, and lifelong learner. I'm passionate about exploring the intersection of AI, knowledge work, and human creativity. I believe in the power of AI agents to augment human capabilities while respecting individual agency and privacy.

I enjoy writing about AI systems, career development, and the evolving landscape of technology. This website serves as a platform to share my thoughts, showcase projects, and connect with others who are equally passionate about the future of AI.

Let's Connect

I'm always interested in discussing AI, product development, technology leadership, and innovative ideas. Feel free to reach out through LinkedIn or GitHub.

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