Twitter’s chief operating officer Adam Bain – the man credited with building the social network’s ad sales business – is leaving the company, it has been revealed.

Bain joined Twitter in 2010 and was appointed COO by chief executive Jack Dorsey when he returned to the business last year.

However, in light of the firm’s ongoing financial difficulties, and plans to lay off about 8% of its global workforce, Bain has opted to “explore opportunities outside the company”.

He will be replaced as COO by Twitter chief financial officer Anthony Noto, who first joined the business in 2014. Noto will oversee a senior team including vice president of global revenue and operations, Matt Derella.

“Since joining Twitter in 2010, Adam has built an amazing team and a global business from the ground up. I’m grateful to Adam for everything he’s done for Twitter, and for his leadership and friendship over the years. I can’t wait to see what he does next,” said Dorsey.

“Anthony is a passionate leader who has shown an unmatched depth of financial expertise as our CFO. He’s also a stellar operational leader, and consistently shows a capacity to take on more. Anthony’s leadership as our COO combined with Matt’s proven track record leading global sales gives us confidence as we drive towards our goal of GAAP profitability in 2017 to ensure Twitter continues to serve more and more people.”

Bain, who announced his departure with a series of tweets (see below), added: “It has been a privilege and honour to work alongside Jack and the entire Twitter team to help build one of the world’s most unique and powerful platforms that exists today.

“The past six years have been incredible and I’m inspired by what Twitter has become and what it will be in the future.”

Last month, it was announced that Twitter is to discontinue its six-second video service Vine.