Short-term Apple executive Yoky Matsuoka returns to Nest as CTO

Yoky Matsuoka, a leading expert in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, is returning to Alphabet's Nest Labs after serving less than nine months on the job at Apple, where she was in charge of various health-related projects including aspects of Apple Watch.

Matsuoka was rehired by Alphabet as chief technology officer at Nest, a position that assumes oversight of the firm's technology roadmap, reports Bloomberg.

In her new role, Matsuoka is responsible for ferreting out new hardware and software assets that enable Nest to better compete in the growing smart home device market, the report said. She will also be on the lookout for outside partnerships and potential internal collaborations with other Alphabet divisions.

Prior to her new post, Matsuoka was part of Apple's health technology team. Hired by the Cupertino tech giant in May 2016, she worked under COO Jeff Williams on various health-related initiatives, including HealthKit and Apple Watch, until her departure in December.

Matsuoka returns to Nest after a nearly two year absence. She was at the firm when former Apple executives Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers founded the startup in 2010, and spearheaded development of machine learning algorithms that power the Nest Learning Thermostat. Matsuoka left Nest shortly after it was acquired by Google in 2014.