Meta head of infrastructure Santosh Janardhan is stepping down

In short: Meta says Santosh Janardhan, its longtime head of infrastructure, will step down and be replaced by Dave Brown.

What happened

Meta told TechCrunch that Santosh Janardhan, the company’s head of infrastructure and co-head of engineering, is stepping down. Infrastructure is the behind-the-scenes systems that keep apps running, like the roads, power lines, and plumbing that keep a city working.

Meta said Dave Brown will replace Janardhan. Brown joined Meta earlier this year as vice president of infrastructure. Before Meta, Brown spent 19 years at Amazon, focusing on computing systems, cloud services (renting computing power over the internet), and AI, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Meta said Janardhan will stay for a transition period and move into an advisory role on “Meta Compute.” This is Meta’s work around computing capacity for things like AI, including the data centers (large buildings filled with computers) that process and store information. Janardhan is expected to leave the company next year.

The company did not say why Janardhan is stepping down. Bloomberg previously reported the change, citing an internal memo, and CNBC reported that the memo referenced the need to “pass the baton.”

Why it matters

Meta has been spending heavily on the computers and data centers needed for AI in recent years. A leadership change in the team that runs those systems can affect how quickly Meta can build and operate the capacity needed for new AI features, and how reliable its services remain as they scale.

Source: TechCrunch AI