Facebook hires Mozilla engineer

Facebook has hired Mozilla technology veteran Mike Schroepfer as a director of engineering, as part of the social network's recent executive shuffle.

Mike Schroepfer is joining Facebook as a director of engineering.

(Credit: Mozilla )

Schroepfer, who led the development of the Firefox browser as Mozilla's vice president of engineering, will be one of four directors of engineering at Facebook when he joins the company in the coming weeks. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company created the position for Schroepfer to work on its social-network platform and Web site. Facebook is still looking to hire a vice president of engineering to replace former CTO Adam D'Angelo, 23, who left the company this summer.

Schroepfer is the newest executive to walk through Facebook's seemingly revolving door. Mark Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape, joined the company's board of directors in late June. Earlier this year, former Google executives Sheryl Sandberg and Elliot Schrage joined the company, too.

On the flip side, Matt Cohler, employee No. 5 at Facebook and its head of product management, said he plans to leave the company this fall to join venture firm Benchmark Capital.

For his part, Schroepfer leaves the close-knit Mozilla community for another social network. He announced his departure to the Mozilla developer team on his blog Monday. "This is the first time I've decided to leave something I really truly love - I will dearly miss getting a chance to work with all of you every day. Everyone that I've met from the community has, and will continue to be, a huge inspiration to me."