Mike Isaac

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Facebook Engineering Director Josh Wiseman Departs for EIR Gig

Josh Wiseman, a longtime Facebooker who has had a hand in some of the company’s largest, most ambitious projects, has left the company.

Wiseman joined the company in 2007, straight out of Stanford’s computer science program and following in the footsteps of a number of his classmates who joined the social giant in 2006. Working at Facebook was his first full-time professional gig, having previously held only internships at tech companies like Apple and Pixar.

While Wiseman, a classic “under-the-radar” type, hasn’t surfaced much at public-facing company events or in the press, he has played a role in launching some of Facebook’s pivotal products over the six years he worked there.

He was the engineering manager on about a dozen projects, including Photos, Video, Groups, Pages, Chat, Privacy and Profile improvements. He led engineering for Timeline last year, and was one of the first engineers to work on Facebook Chat, now seen as one of Facebook’s biggest priorities for the future of the company.

“I love Facebook and am still very excited about it,” Wiseman said in an interview. “But I’ve sort of developed a desire to work on a more tangible social problem — like the health care industry — that I don’t think Facebook necessarily plans to tackle in the near term.”

In the meantime, Wiseman will join Social+Capital as an engineer in residence, meeting different companies and figuring out exactly what he wants to do next. His last day at Facebook was Friday, and he begins his new gig tomorrow.

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There was a worry before I started this that I was going to burn every bridge I had. But I realize now that there are some bridges that are worth burning.

— Valleywag editor Sam Biddle