Kiwi is Australian men's rowing head coach

New Zealander Ian Wright has been hired as Australian rowing's new men's head coach.

Wright, 54, arrives after a successful stint as Switzerland's head coach, helping the Swiss to their first Olympic gold medal since 1996 when they won the men's lightweight four at the Rio Games last month.

A bronze medallist himself at the Seoul Olympics, Wright will be based the newly-established men's national training centre in Canberra.

His arrival follows the recent appointments of Bernard Savage and Jaime Fernandez as performance director and deputy performance director, respectively.

Prior to his role with Swiss Rowing, Wright worked for Rowing New Zealand as the NZ men's eight coach and as head coach of the Waikato Regional Performance Centre.

He has previously worked in Australia as head coach and director at Melbourne University Rowing Club from 2005-2009.