Facebook’s CTO D’Angelo to Leave

Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo will leave the company.

BoomTown called Facebook PR last week about the rumor of D’Angelo’s departure, but did not get a response. The company confirmed the departure by D’Angelo (pictured here) tonight.

The 23-year-old D’Angelo, the top tech exec for the social-networking site, will be leaving the company to take some time off.

He has known Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg since high school.

D’Angelo wrote a letter to Facebook staff on Friday about the move. He said he wanted a break.

But, according to sources close to the company, D’Angelo felt his responsibilities no longer fit well with his skills and interests.

There were rumors of some tension with Zuckerberg, who is still in India on a long work and personal trip around the world. But sources said D’Angelo simply wanted to do something different.

D’Angelo said in his letter that he would remain a strong and enthusiastic supporter of the much-hyped start-up.

Facebook will not be replacing the CTO role, sources said, but has a search underway for a VP of engineering.

The quiet, self-effacing D’Angelo should get a lot of credit for Facebook’s elegant and robust architecture.

As I wrote about him in mini-profiles of Facebook’s execs:

Chief Technology Officer Adam D’Angelo, a longtime Zuckerberg pal. He’s in charge of keeping Facebook from breaking apart as it grows, kind of like Scotty in ‘Star Trek.’ But there’s no warp drive that can save the site from all those surly college students and surlier Silicon Valley types if it all went kerflooey. His Facebook bio says the computer-science grad from the California Institute of Technology was one of the ‘top 24 finalists in the Topcoder Collegiate Challenge, which tests the ability to design and implement complex algorithms in a timed environment.’ Color me impressed, even though I have no idea what that means.”

The very talented Eric Eldon at VentureBeat also had the story on D’Angelo’s departure with some more details about the young techie.