George Reyes has stepped down from the post of chief financial officer at Google. The question is: who’s brave enough to step into his shoes – and take responsibility for delivering the stellar growth Google investors have become accustomed to?

The main theory doing the rounds says that Mr Reyes, who has been at Google for nearly six years and masterminded its controversial but ultimately successful 2004 IPO, is heading for the door at the top of his game.

“There are no criminal actions linked to the news and no Enron-like scandals to report,” Monstersandcritics.com reported, with what seemed like a note of regret.

Certainly, he’s been well rewarded for his work. According to Forbes, at the end of last year he’d bagged more than $21 million in stock options. Earlier this year, his annual salary was raised to $450,000 from $250,000. Last year, he also took home a $171,000 bonus.

But what lies in store for his successor? John Battelle believes Mr Reyes is getting out at the right time. “The future for Google's new CFO is going to be rough: Think Microsoft after Windows had its initial run. Ho to keep the Street happy when it expects double digit growth every quarter. Ick.”

Others see a story behind the story.

“Does anyone really believe it's a coincidence that [Reyes] has announced his retirement so soon after the company missed Wall Street analysts' expectations for earnings in its second quarter?” asked the Valleywag site.

“I only regret that I hadn't included Reyes in our ongoing 'Toogle Many Googlers' series, in which Valleywag attempts to solve the binge of overhiring that led to Google's profit shortfall.

“After all, if the CFO isn't minding the payroll, who is?”

The site includes a “translation” of the Google announcement of Mr Reyes' departure:

“CEO Eric Schmidt says of Reyes: 'Though we fully appreciate his decision to step back from active management, we'll miss his thoughtfulness, good humour and wisdom.'

"What he really means: 'That Reyes sure made us laugh a lot, especially when he tried to make us plan budgets, didn't he?' ”

And if you still fancy applying for the post, you can start here.

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