Wallis leaves The People, Trinity Mirror's standalone Sunday tabloid, to return to News International, where he started his tabloid newspaper career, after five years in the editor's chair.
He will work with Andy Coulson, the new editor of the News of the World who was promoted from deputy editor earlier this week to take over from Rebekah Wade, who moved over to become editor of The Sun.
Wallis has been replaced on an interim basis at The People by the paper's deputy editor Alan Edwards, who will edit the paper as the process to appoint a successor begins.
Mark Haysom, managing director of national newspapers at Trinity Mirror, said: "Neil is a great editor and we are very sorry to see him leave the company. We wish him all the best in his new role."
Wallis hit the headlines last year when The People fought a court battle to name the footballer Garry Flitcroft in its exclusive story about his two extramarital affairs. The story was one of the most talked-about tabloid scoops of the year.
Flitcroft, the Blackburn Rovers skipper, tried to gag the newspaper through the courts, to no avail. The paper won the case, leaving most of the country to exclaim "Garry who?" when the news finally got out.
Wallis led the redesign of the paper last year and the launch of its SP sports supplement as it fought off competition from the new Daily Star Sunday.
Recruited initially at The Sun by Kelvin MacKenzie, Wallis, a Manchester United fanatic, worked his way up to be the deputy editor before accepting the editor's chair at The People.
He is described as a "no-nonsense, larger-than-life character whose every utterance is peppered with expletives" like every good tabloid editor.
THE WALLIS FILE
1986: The Sun, investigations editor
1990: The Sun, features editor to associate editor (news)
1994: The Sun, deputy editor
1998: The People, editor
2003: News of the World, deputy editor
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