Nima Khajehnouri, who spent nine years as vice president of engineering at Snapchat, will leave the company next month, according to two people familiar with the company who asked to remain anonymous so they could speak freely. Their identities are known to Insider.
Khajehnouri led engineering for the Snapchat app, as well as monetization efforts within it, such as ads and Snapchat+ subscriptions.
A company spokesman confirmed Khajehnouri was leaving the company December 1 but declined to comment further. Khajehnouri did not respond to a request for comment.
Khajehnouri is the latest in a string of high-level departures and changes at Snap, as CEO Evan Spiegel struggles toward profitability and steady revenue growth since the company’s initial public offering in 2017. Spiegel is said to now be overseeing all leaders of Snap’s business, as well as product, something he’s maintained close oversight of for years.
Though Snapchat users are at an all-time high, with 406 million people using the app daily, Snap is scrambling to remake its advertising business, which accounts for most of its revenue, while also working to generate subscription revenue by offering users premium features for a monthly fee. Other attempts to build new revenue streams have been abandoned, like the division for augmented-reality business services that quickly shuttered.
Changes to Snap’s executive ranks have been swift, too. After Snap conducted a mass layoff last year, its chief business officer, Jeremi Gorman, and head of sales, Peter Naylor, left the company. Snap announced the exit of Jerry Hunter, who was promoted a year ago to be Snap’s first COO, at the end of October along with its lackluster third-quarter results. Neither he nor Gorman is being replaced, the company has said.
Several other executives also left Snap earlier this year. Ben Schwerin, the senior vice president of content and partnerships, left in April and joined Coatue. Biswanath Panda, the vice president of monetization engineering who reported to Khajehnouri, left the company in May after just a year in the role and joined Uber. Jacob Andreou, Snap’s former senior vice president of product and growth, left after working there since 2015 and then joined Greylock. The vice president of product Peter Sellis left Snap in September after eight years, taking on a similar role with Discord.
Khajehnouri oversaw all of engineering for almost a year in the wake of Hunter’s promotion to COO. Snap in June hired Eric Young as its new senior vice president of engineering, with Khajehnouri then reporting to him.
At about that time, workers in engineering questioned how long Khajehnouri would stay at Snap after being effectively “passed over” for a permanent promotion, as Insider reported.
Snap has hired new executives this year amid the many departures. In addition to Young, Darshan Kantak joined as senior vice president of revenue product, Patrick Harris joined as president of Americas, Ronan Harris joined as president of EMEA, and Ajit Mohan joined as president of APAC.
Are you a Snap employee or someone with a tip or insight to share? Contact Kali Hays at [email protected], on the secure messaging app Signal at 949-280-0267, or through X/Twitter DM at @hayskali. Reach out using a nonwork device.
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