The Verge has learned that HP's Brian Hernacki, who most recently has served as chief architect for webOS, has left the company. Though he'd never been a public face of the product the same way big names like Jon Rubinstein or Matias Duarte had been, Hernacki's departure seems to leave another relatively high-profile talent hole in the ranks at a critical time when HP hopes to make the transition to Open webOS over the coming months.

Hernacki had been with Palm since 2009, coming from Symantec where he'd served as a researcher for the better part of the last decade. It's unclear how (or if) HP will look to directly fill the role — it's possible that this is part of a larger restructuring in the transition to open source. We'll keep you updated as we hear more.