Facebook's Seattle site leader leaves company

By Bill Rigby

SEATTLE (Reuters) - The leader of Facebook Inc's fast-growing Seattle office left the company last month, a spokeswoman for the online social network told Reuters on Wednesday, a crucial personnel change at Facebook's largest engineering office outside of its Silicon Valley headquarters.

Engineering manager Paul Carduner, who took over leadership of the Seattle office about six months ago, was in charge of more than 600 people.

In February he announced a lease on space in a new building in Seattle with room for more than 2,000 Facebook employees. The office is expecting to move there in January 2016.

Facebook did not publicize his departure and it has not been reported previously. No replacement has been named, a source at the company told Reuters, and senior staff in Seattle are sharing Carduner's duties.

Carduner did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His Facebook page shows a post saying he left Facebook April 17 and started working from home as a "house husband" on April 18. He does not give any indication of why he left Facebook.

The social network's fast-growing Seattle office is the biggest in terms of engineering staff after its Menlo Park, California, headquarters. Facebook is hiring quickly across the board, not just in Seattle. Last quarter it passed 10,000 employees worldwide for the first time.

The Seattle office has played a critical role in developing many of the features in Facebook's mobile and messaging apps, and has recruited heavily from local tech companies, especially Microsoft Corp.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby; Editing by Ken Wills)