MongoDB has begun searching for a new permanent CEO following the surprising news Monday morning of Desai’s departure to take a job overseeing Meta Group’s new Meta Enterprise Platform initiative.
Chirantan “CJ” Desai has stepped down as president and CEO of database developer MongoDB to take a job as chief enterprise platform officer at social media giant Meta Platforms.
The news came Monday morning as Meta announced the launch of its Meta Enterprise Platform, a new AI platform from the company, and disclosed that the company had hired Desai (pictured) to oversee the effort, reporting directly to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
As of 9:50 a.m. EDT MongoDB’s stock was down about 21 percent on the news of Desai’s departure, dropping about $85 to around $325 per share.
Monday morning MongoDB said it had appointed Dev Ittycheria as interim president and CEO, effective immediately. Ittycheria led the company as president and CEO for 11 years, from 2024 to 2025, before retiring in November last year.
“I’m honored to step back into the president and CEO role at MongoDB,” Ittycheria said in a statement announcement his re-appointment. “I was privileged to lead the company for more than a decade and help build MongoDB into the global business it is today. I know the company, our people and our customers extremely well, and I have enormous confidence in the opportunity ahead.”
“I look forward to working with our leadership team and thousands of talented employees around the world to move quickly, execute with focus, and continue delivering exceptional value to our customers,” he said.
Desai joined MongoDB after serving as president of product and engineering at Cloudflare for just over a year. Before that he worked at ServiceNow for nearly eight years, last serving as president and chief operating officer in 2023 and 2024.
MongoDB said that its board of directors has begun a search process to find the company’s next permanent CEO and has retained an executive search firm to assist.
The company also said it “remains confident in the outlook for the business and is reaffirming its guidance for Q3 and the full year fiscal 2027 provided on September 1st, 2026.”
“MongoDB’s business is strong, and there is no better person to take on the role of president and CEO in the interim than Dev Ittycheria,” said Tom Killalea, board chairman, in a statement. “He knows this company deeply, has remained an involved and active executive board member over the past year, and will step in immediately to ensure a seamless transition.”
