Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer got on the computer today to type out an e-mail stating that the software giant’s current Chief Software Architect, Ray Ozzie, Is stepping down. According to an article at paidContent.org he’s doing so shortly after some of the projects he oversaw were rolled into Bing. He appears to have had a fairly varied and wide experience at the company,

Ozzie was promoted to his current position after Bill Gates stepped down from his day-to-day job at Microsoft in June 2006. At the time, Ozzie was charged with overseeing the company’s “technical architecture,” while a second executive, Craig Mundie, was given the title of chief research and strategy officer, with oversight of the company’s research and incubation efforts. In his role, Ozzie had been an advocate of Microsoft’s “cloud” strategy and had also started several research groups, including Live Labs and, just last fall, FUSE Labs, which develops new “social” products.

In February of this year, Corporate Vice President of Windows Platform Strategy, Mike Nash resigned and, in May, Microsoft Corp’s Bill Veghte left to become Chief Technology Officer for AOL.

It appears that the string of resignations by chief executives continues with Ozzie’s departure.