Former Twitter engineering guru Mike Abbott is leaving Kleiner Perkins

Mike Abbott, a top engineer at Twitter before landing at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers five years ago, is leaving the venture capital firm, according to sources close to the situation.

Abbott is a high-profile departure for the firm, which is seeking to attract new blood by bringing in well-known operating executives from digital companies. Kleiner confirmed the departure after an inquiry from Recode.

Abbott joined Kleiner in 2011 and was one of its nine general partners, but sources said he was itching to return to an operational role at a company. No details are known on his next posting.

“Why leave one of the greatest jobs on earth?” Abbott wrote in a note sent to Kleiner employees Monday afternoon that was obtained by Recode. “Ultimately, my desire to discover and invest in the next new thing became eclipsed by my desire to get my hands dirty and build the next new thing.”

Abbott has invested in startups like Dollar Shave Club, Codecademy and Snap. He has also served in recent years on the boards of companies like Ripcord, Buddybuild and Mobcrush, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Abbott briefly worked at Benchmark, a Kleiner competitor, but made his name at Twitter, where as vice president of engineering he is credited with having helped fix the site's perpetual bugs.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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