Meta replaces longtime infrastructure head Santosh Janardhan

Meta is replacing Santosh Janardhan, its longtime head of infrastructure and co-head of engineering, with Dave Brown, the company told TechCrunch. Brown joined Meta as vice president of infrastructure earlier this year.

Janardhan will remain at Meta during the transition and move into an advisory role on Meta Compute, a company representative said. He is expected to leave next year. Meta did not specify why he is stepping down; a memo cited by Bloomberg reportedly said he needed to “pass the baton.”

Janardhan joined Meta in 2009 and helped oversee its growth into a major internet company. Earlier this year, he was tasked with leading Meta Compute, an initiative to scale the company’s data center investments and strategy.

Before joining Meta, Brown spent 19 years at Amazon, focusing on compute, cloud, and AI, according to his LinkedIn profile. The company did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for clarification about Janardhan’s departure.