Scott Johnson is to vacate his position as Scotland interim head coach to take up a new role as the Scottish Rugby Union's director of rugby.
The Australian, who led Scotland to a third-place finish in the RBS 6 Nations, is set to take charge of the team for their summer tournament with Italy, Samoa and hosts South Africa.
The SRU said Johnson would remain as head coach until the position is filled and will "continue to have involvement with the Scotland team through until the 2015 Rugby World Cup and beyond".
Johnson joined the Scotland coaching team ahead of last summer's successful tour of Australasia and took over on an interim basis after Andy Robinson resigned following Scotland's defeat by Tonga in November.
The SRU appointed Jonathan Humphreys as Scotland's forwards coach earlier this week and will continue to work with Johnson to identify his successor.
Chief executive Mark Dodson said: "It's imperative that we get the right candidate as head coach of the national team to take us to the 2015 Rugby World Cup and Scott and I are working together on this and have thought long and hard about the best solution and people for Scottish Rugby to continue to head in the right direction.
"Johnno has been a popular coach with the players, as underlined by our third place finish in the most recent RBS 6 Nations Championship.
"As he's said, he enjoys hands-on coaching and his reputation in that role has been enhanced by his work with the Scotland team.
"But he also has other qualities in abundance that we wish to utilise and it was a decision that was made by both parties to get the best structures and systems in place to take Scottish rugby forward.
"The director of rugby is a hugely important appointment, one that is absolutely integral to Scotland's standing on the world stage in the next decade and beyond.
"This appointment is about laying the foundations as we prepare our teams for the key tests of their status that occur along the way to milestones like the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England and the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
"Scott will lead on player acquisition and contracting. He'll be responsible for driving a new Academy structure and for heading up our coach development, which includes our priority of nurturing the next generation of Scottish coaches who can operate at elite level.
"Scotland 7s and Scotland Women will also be significant parts of his remit, while two of the pillars of professional rugby, strength and conditioning and medical, will report into him too along with a significant involvement with the national team.
"As I say, this is an importantly strategic role for Scottish Rugby and Scott is an outstanding candidate.
"Until we finalise our search for the next Scotland head coach, Scott will lead the Scotland tour to South Africa this summer."
Johnson joined the SRU following the end of a three-year stint with Ospreys as director of coaching.
The 50-year-old, who has also had spells in charge of Wales and USA, said in the SRU statement: "I'm delighted that the discussions I've had with Mark have reached such a positive conclusion.
"I've really enjoyed working with the players throughout the past year and I'm looking forward to that continuing with our quadrangular tournament in South Africa next month.
"The director of rugby job excites me. It's about making a really positive contribution that will stand Scottish Rugby in good stead for years to come and I am looking forward to the challenge of the new role as well as continuing with the Scotland team.
"There are some big areas such as coach development, player development, sevens and player acquisition, where, working with colleagues throughout Scottish Rugby, I want to do my bit to ensure we make best use of the talents we have to take the game in this country forward."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article