McGuigan spent time coaching amateur clubs in the north west while he was a player at Sale and he says that he has found a real calling.
He will now take up his new defence role ahead of the Premiership return against Leicester Tigers on 1 December.
“My passion is defence,” McGuigan told the club’s website, external.
“There’s a few things that we have brought in over the last couple of weeks and we look forward to challenging these systems going into the next block of games.
“The challenge for me is to make our defence effective and bring back our Sharks DNA, physicality, hard work and togetherness, it’s massive for us, that’s non-negotiable.”