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Mozilla CTO Eich takes broader engineering role

The creator of JavaScript now leads Mozilla's day-to-day engineering work as the organization expands beyond Firefox into ecosystem-busting services.

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Stephen Shankland has been a reporter at CNET since 1998 and writes about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
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Stephen Shankland
Mozilla CTO and JavaScript founder Brendan Eich
Mozilla CTO and JavaScript founder Brendan Eich Stephen Shankland

Firefox maker Mozilla has concentrated more engineering power in the hands of Chief Technology Officer Brendan Eich as the organization expands its ambitions beyond just browsers.

Eich, who in the 1990s invented the JavaScript at the heart of the Web's interactive abilities, had been leading Mozilla's strategy and Web standards work. Now he'll be more directly involved overseeing engineering for projects including Firefox for PCs and Android phones, the upcoming Firefox OS, and efforts such as the Firefox Marketplace. He'll also lead the organization's work marshaling the open-source programmers who help Mozilla.

The move comes as Mozilla moves beyond the browser into higher-level domains where it sees proprietary lock-in encroaching into people's lives, notably ecosystems of interlinked products and services.

"Our strategy has to move up the stack to the services currently tied to walled gardens, like identity," Eich said in an interview today.

It's not the only change at the not-for-profit organization. Late in 2012, Johnathan Nightingale was quietly promoted to vice president of Firefox engineering.

And Damon Sicore, who had been vice president of engineering, is leaving for an unnamed startup after working at Mozilla for six years.