Gathercole, who guided Canberra triathlete Simon Thompson to the 2004 Olympic Games, has put his coaching career on hold to take over as the Brumbies' team manager.

He will take charge of the team's off-field organisation for the Super Rugby season in a major shift from his triathlon and swimming backgrounds.

It is his first stint in a professional rugby environment, but Gathercole hopes he can provide a unique perspective to propel the Brumbies towards their championship goal.

"It's a different sport, but we still want to win," Gathercole said.

"If I can bring my experience and knowledge in elite sport to this organisation, it's going to be a positive for everyone.

"People have been quite accepting of my different knowledge base. The rugby environment is very structured, when you're on the rivet it's easy to just start looking inwards.

"Hopefully I can add a different voice and different opinion that might not be traditional. As a high performance organisation we have to do things differently. If we do the same thing, we'll get beaten.

"I'm not saying I have the answer, but if I can aid that a little bit then we can push that. Winning is not a sometimes thing, it's an every time thing."

Gathercole will replace Tony Thorpe in the management role.

Former All Blacks and Canterbury Crusaders manager Thorpe helped Jake White engineer a massive culture shift at the Brumbies when they teamed up in 2012.

Thorpe introduced a new travel itinerary and protocols to speed up the players' recovery and added off-field structure as White rebuilt the team on the field.

Gathercole hopes to add his own stamp to the Brumbies set up and will work closely with coach Stephen Larkham to continue the club's recent resurgence.

Gathercole's dad, Terry, was a swimmer and won a silver medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He was also a swimming coach for 28 years and is part of the ACT Sport and International Swimming Hall of Fames.

Ben Gathercole followed his father's career path into the pool and started a swimming scholarship at Florida University before moving into coaching to help mould some of the capital's best triathletes.

Gathercole used rugby players, including Larkham and John Eales, as motivation for his triathletes to succeed.

"I've been involved in endurance sports, but I've always been a rugby and Brumbies supporter," Gathercole said.

"We used to try to emulate Wallabies and Brumbies players in my glory years of coaching the early 2000s.

"It's fantastic to come in and maybe impart my knowledge on these guys. Coaching for me is done, this is my first real job.

"We would spend four months of the year in Europe as a triathlon coach. We've been to the top, I don't think I can sustain that as a coach so it was time for me to walk away instead of dabbling."