Intel's lead engineer Venkata Renduchintala is leaving the company after CEO Bob Swan announced sweeping changes to its leadership team Tuesday. The news comes less than a week after Intel revealed its next-generation 7-nanometer chips were behind schedule as a result of a flaw in the manufacturing process. The revelation sent Intel's stock price tumbling nearly 16% following the announcement.

Renduchintala joined Intel in 2015, where he served as chief engineering officer and group president of the Technology, Systems Architecture, and Client Group (TSCG). His team was tasked with developing the core technologies at the heart of Intel's product lines.

Renduchintala's departure, which is set for Aug. 3, is the result of a broader overhaul of that group. As part of the restructure, Intel will break up the TSCG into five teams all reporting directly to Swan.

Under the new structure, Ann Kelleher, who currently serves as SVP and GM of manufacturing and operations at Intel, will head up the development of 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer processes under the newly formed Technology Development division.

Manufacturing and operations will be handed off to Keyvan Esfarjani, who most recently led manufacturing for Intel’s Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group.

Design engineering will fall on the shoulders of Josh Walden, SVP and GM of Intel's Product Assurance and Security (IPAS), while the chipmaker searches for a permanent design lead. During this time, the IPAS team will continue to report to Walden.

Meanwhile Raja Koduri, SVP and chief architect of Intel's Architecture, Graphics, and Software division, and Randhir Thakur, corporate VP and chief supply chain officer, will keep their posts, but will now report directly to Swan.

“I look forward to working directly with these talented and experienced technology leaders, each of whom is committed to driving Intel forward during this period of critical execution,” Swan said in a statement.

Intel has suffered numerous setbacks in recent years, as rival chipmakers, which mostly depend on external foundries like those from Samsung or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), have pushed ahead with 7-nanometer and later this year 5-nanometer chips.

During the company's second-quarter earnings call last week, Swan revealed the company's upcoming 7-nanometer process was behind schedule.

“We are seeing an approximate six-month shift in our 7-nanometer-based CPU product timing relative to prior expectations,” Swan said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript. “The yield of our 7-nanometer process, which based on recent data, is now trending approximately 12 months behind our initial target.”

The delay is the result of a defect in the process that resulted in degraded yields.

“We’ve root-caused the issue and believe there are no fundamental roadblocks, but we have also invested in contingency plans to hedge against further schedule uncertainty,” he said. “We now expect to see initial product shipments of our first Intel-based 7-nanometer product, a client CPU, in late 2022 or early 2023.”

Delays are nothing new for Intel. The vendor's 10-nanometer process has experienced repeated delays due to low yields. While the company has successfully brought 10-nanometer laptop chips to market in recent months, desktop and data center chips won't reach the market until 2021.

However, unlike previous delays, the competition has gained considerable ground on Intel with next-generation 5-nanometer chips expected from TSMC to launch later this year, leading some to question how Intel will catch up.