Meta appoints new head of engineering as current leader steps aside
Another board change will hit Meta following the recently announced departure of COO Sheryl Sandberg and head of AI Jerome Pesenti.
David Mortenson, the company’s chief technical leader responsible for its data centers and core infrastructure, is stepping down from his position, according to an internal memo obtained by The edge† Santosh Janardhan, one of his direct reports and a current VP of engineering, will take on the role later this month. A spokesperson for Meta, Jon Carvill, confirmed the change.
“I’m incredibly proud of everything we’ve accomplished in the past two years I’ve supported Infra,” Mortenson said in the memo, adding that the company “survived the worst capacity crisis in the company’s history (at least in the last decade)” – likely a reference to the supply chain constraints caused by the global pandemic – and “managed to stay productive as we shifted to work from home.”
Mortenson’s role oversees the “teams responsible for developing and operating the hardware, network, software and data centers on which all Meta services run,” the statement said. company website† He spent 11 years at Meta in various technical leadership roles and took up the top position about two years ago. He leaves his role, but says he won’t be leaving Meta for a while. He’ll take a long break, saying in the memo that “as soon as I get back, I’ll figure out what the future holds for me.”
