Heenan, who has fashioned an impressive record coaching the University of Queensland to six premierships from nine grand finals appearances since 2009, will join Brad Thorn's coaching staff along with new defence coach Phil Blake.
Heenan's area of responsibility will be maximising the development of non-match day members of the Reds squad while renewing focus on off-the-ball effort areas and attack breakdown.
He was excited to have the opportunity. For a long time he was happy with coaching club rugby, but in recent years he felt he might have more to offer the Reds.
The Reds won one of six games against New Zealand teams before being knocked out of the 2022 quarterfinals by the Crusaders. Yet, against the Australian sides, they managed seven wins from eight games.
"I think there have been some issues in the past couple of years with the way we've approached the games against the Kiwis.
"There's clearly an issue with where we have gone about things against the Kiwis. We've gone really well against the Australian teams, and you can see the improvements immediately since Brad took over. But I'm there to help the coaching staff and players take the next step."
Each Australian team was battling to make their mark against New Zealand sides.
"There's also a game style that we need to look at closely, in attack and defence, to help us have more consistent results, and make it harder for the Kiwis to play against us."