Back in the Cold War days, what’s happening at Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) would have been called a party purge. Incoming CEO Chuck Robbins disclosed the departure of two senior execs on Monday, and Re/code is reporting that CTO Padmasree Warrior is next.

As a new paramount leader takes the throne, former rivals for the crown take flight!

Warrior is scheduled to deliver the keynote at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development’s tech conference in September, but she is likely to have a new employer by then.

“Cisco CTO Warrior to Depart Company Following Management Shake-Up,” reads the headline at Re/code.

“Padmasree Warrior, the high-profile chief technology and strategy officer of networking giant Cisco Systems, will be leaving the company during the summer, multiple sources briefed on the move tell Re/code,” reported the website that is led by longtime tech writer Walt Mossberg.

A formal announcement “could come within about three weeks,” Re/code’s Arik Hesseldahl wrote Monday.

The news of Warrior’s possible departure came shortly after UNC-Chapel Hill graduate Robbins said presidents Gary Moore and Rob Lloyd were leaving as of July 25.

That’s the day Robbins takes over CEO duties from John Chambers, who remains Cisco chair.

Analysts surprised

Tierman Ray writes at Barron’s that J.P. Morgan analyst Rod Hall was surprised by the Warrior news, but not about the departure of Lloyd and Moore.

“We believed that both Lloyd and Moore were likely to leave if they didn’t get the CEO job. We see both as having played important roles at Cisco so we believe these departures are likely to create some short term turmoil though we doubt the longer term impact is material […] Padmasree Warrior is also departing her role as the CTO – we find this a bit more surprising given we didn’t realize she had been actively contending for the CEO role,” Ray quoted Hall as writing in his research note.

So where might Warrior be headed?

“It’s not clear if she has a new job lined up, but according to sources she is planning to explore taking board seats with other companies,” Re/code reported.

“She recently interviewed for at least one job, but determined the role was not a good fit. She’s also said by sources to be considering job offers both as a CEO and as a managing partner at a venture capital firm.”

When named Chambers’ successor, Cisco’s board made clear that Robbins was taking the job with a mandate to change the company. From the moment he was declared the CEO, Robbins said change was coming.

He apparently is going to be an extremely hands-on CEO with a management structure that he is already flattening – a point he made in Monday’s news.

Apparently the flattening now includes Warrior.

Who among possible successors to Chambers in the Cisco management team that Robbins beat out will go next?

Cisco’s thousands of workers in RTP have to be asking themselves that question every day,