Google’s head of its mobile efforts, Deep Nishar, has left the company, and is joining the heavily backed LinkedIn as VP of product management, taking over the position founder Reid Hoffman was looking after for a while now. Hoffman will remain at the company and shift his focus to broader strategy issues, reports WSJ. LinkedIn has raised over $100 million in funding, so not your typical startup, and considering Nishar’s experience, likely will see more LinkedIn forays into mobile, beyond the basic presence it has now.

This continues a line of senior execs who have left a “rapidly maturing” Google (NSDQ: GOOG) in recent times, to join startups and other companies with more challenges; among the more famous examples are Sheryl Sandberg who joined Facebook, and Douglas Merrill who joined EMI to head its digital business.

Nishar was the product head for Google’s growing footprint in the mobile sector, including working closely with the Android team, and more recently was overseeing product development for the Asia-Pacific region. He was with the company for over five years.