FORMER North Melbourne football manager Daniel McPherson has won a fresh role as Essendon's new head of performance.

AFL.com.au can reveal the appointment as the club's new-look football department continues to take shape.

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The Bombers have created two new senior positions within their football department – the general manager of performance and head of development – emanating from their poor 2022 season, with VFL senior assistant and development coach Cam Roberts promoted to the head of development role.

McPherson had one season as the Roos' general manager of football performance before the club parted ways with him after less than 12 months in the role as part of a tumultuous period of change at the Kangaroos.

He had landed at North Melbourne from Melbourne, where he was the general manager of football operations and worked closely with current Essendon football manager and former Melbourne football boss Josh Mahoney.

He had also been an assistant coach at the Demons, and will have a focus at Essendon on managing the coaching and high performance teams.

"Dan has high-level experience as both a player and football administrator, is a great football person and highly respected throughout the industry. We're all very excited to have him join the Bombers and lead a key part of our football program," Mahoney said.

"He's had a lot of success driving winning football programs across men's and women's football and he understands what it takes to build a successful team off-field. Dan was the standout candidate to join the Bombers."

The Bombers will take on a bolstered football department for coach Brad Scott's first year in charge, with McPherson's appointment and Roberts' promotion the latest changes.

Roberts joined the Bombers at the end of 2019 and has been highly rated as he has worked his way through the coaching ranks in the AFL system.

"We have been impressed with Cam's contribution to Essendon and this new coaching structure will support him to best progress our players. He shares a similar philosophy to Brad Scott on the development of players and have been impressed with his commitment and determination to getting the best out of all players," Mahoney said.

"Cam's life and coaching experiences, relationships, positive attitude, and planning processes, made him a perfect candidate for this role and we look forward to Cam heading up a great group of development coaches and pulling together a program that improves all Essendon players."

Leigh Tudor will be the club's full-time VFL coach and former Kangaroos and Port Adelaide midfielder Ben Jacobs has been appointed in a development and coaching role as the Bombers look to boost their development area, which was a key focus out of the club's external review.