Sunderland have turned to Manchester City's former director of football services as they attempt to bring an end to their on-field struggles.
Simon Wilson, who spent 10 years at City after a four-year stint at Southampton, will work alongside manager David Moyes and chief executive Martin Bain as the club's new chief football officer, with the Black Cats looking to improve performance across the board.
Bain said: "In Simon, we are bringing someone to the club who has highly impressive track record of putting the building blocks in place in order to give clubs the best chance of achieving success.
"Harnessing his knowledge and experience in developing effective football infrastructures at the highest level will give us a great platform from which to re-define our approach to the fundamental areas of the club such as scouting, recruitment, medical services, player pathways and youth development.
"Simon will play an important part in driving our rebuilding process, and helping us to achieve our aim of making the football club stronger in the future."
Simon Wilson is to join #SAFC as chief football officer on January 1st 2017. More here... https://t.co/bOdiNfay3q
- Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) November 28, 2016
Wilson, who worked with Moyes during his time at Preston, added: "I am excited by the opportunity to join a club that is embarking on a journey of development and improvement.
"My role will be to ensure that we have the best practices, systems and people in place in order to give the club the best platform to achieve its goals.
"There is a great team of people at the club and I want to galvanise the good work that I know is already being done in order to ensure that we are doing everything we can to support the manager and chief executive in their aim of building a better football club."
Sunderland currently sit at the foot of the Premier League table and find themselves engaged in a battle for top-flight survival for the fifth straight season.