SAN FRANCISCO — When Facebook revealed Tuesday that it had identified a political influence campaign ahead of the November midterm elections, the company’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, was front-and-center in speaking on the issue.

But Stamos will exit the social network this month, just as Facebook steps up its efforts to combat misinformation and foreign interference. In an interview, Stamos, 39, said he planned to join Stanford University in September as an adjunct professor and become part of a faculty working group called Information Warfare where he will examine the role of security and technology in society.

The timing is tricky as Facebook grapples with potential threats including election meddling and hackers.

The Silicon Valley company does not plan to appoint a successor for chief security officer.

In an internal Facebook post from January written by Stamos and obtained by The Times, he said the company’s security team was being reorganized and would no longer operate as a stand-alone entity. Instead, he wrote, Facebook’s security workers would be more closely aligned with the product and engineering teams and focus either on protecting the company’s corporate infrastructure or its users.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said in a statement Wednesday Facebook would continue to collaborate with Stamos in his new job at Stanford.

Stamos’ departure is part of several executive exits from the social network, which has been hit by scandals including Russian meddling on the platform in the 2016 presidential election and misuse of people’s data. The Times reported that Stamos was leaving Facebook after he had advocated the company to disclose more about Russian election interference last year but was met with resistance.

Stamos said in the interview that his last day at Facebook would be Aug. 17.

Of his time at Facebook, he said, “Obviously, it has been a difficult three years. I’d like to take the things I’ve learned and apply them more broadly.”

Stamos previously worked as chief information security officer at Yahoo before joining Facebook in 2015. He has been vocal about cybersecurity issues.