Another name from the leadership team in Google's Android team is leaving. Android vice president of engineering Dave Burke has announced that he will be stepping down as head of Android engineering and moving into a “consulting role” and focusing on artificial intelligence and biotechnology projects. Burke announced this situation in an e-mail shared on LinkedIn.
Dave Burke noted that artificial intelligence can play a critical role in accelerating drug discovery. Burke stated that artificial intelligence has a wide application area, especially in difficult-to-treat pediatric cancers. Burke stated that he will work with Sundar Pichai to discover suitable roles at Alphabet in this new period.
Burke had been working on the Android team for 14 years. Burke's departure draws attention after Google recently merged its Android and hardware teams under the name “Platforms and Devices”. Rick Osterloh is the head of the new formation.
Google announced that Hiroshi Lockheimer, who manages Android, Chrome and ChromeOS, will move on to other projects and Sameer Samat will be appointed as the head of the Android ecosystem. These changes mark a significant restructuring of Google's Android ecosystem. Burke stated that his team is in good hands with a solid succession plan.
In his farewell email, Burke announced that more details for his former team would be shared soon. “It's important to me to leave you in good hands,” Burke said. Additionally, he stated that more details about this change will be shared shortly.
There may be more changes to the Google team
Beyond Burke's departure, it was stated that there may be other changes in Google's platforms and devices team. 9to5Google reports that Google's platforms and devices team is undergoing a restructuring. Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Google has begun taking steps to consolidate some parts of their ecosystem. Google announced on Wednesday that ChromeOS will be developed on some of the Android technology stack. Thus, it is aimed to deliver artificial intelligence features more quickly. It gives clues about Ogle's future direction.