Hibs, under head coach Lee Johnson, are fifth in the Scottish Premiership and host St Mirren on Saturday.

"I scouted Hibs games many times in the past and have always been taken by the fantastic atmosphere at Easter Road," said McDermott.

Hibs say former Arsenal, Celtic and Reading scout McDermott "will work closely" with Johnson and "have a strong focus across the recruitment of players and football operations such as scouting, analysis, sports science, and medicine".

Chief executive Ben Kensell said: "We are conscious that this appointment has taken some time, which is partly due to the sad passing of our late chairman Ronald J Gordon, but we also wanted to make sure that we had the right steps in place and a thorough process, to make sure we've got the right person in the door.

"Brian joins us with substantial experience in the game and has worked across numerous different roles across a football club on the sporting side, which sets him up perfectly for this role.

"We also wanted someone that has a strong recruitment bias, and he has that in abundance having scouted across the world for some high level clubs."