Aaron Mauger or Mark Hammett will be the next Highlanders coach following the departure of Scott McLeod to the All Black set-up.
McLeod (44) was announced on Saturday as the defence coach for the national side and will leave the Highlanders following the end of this season.
He will work as an observer with the All Blacks for the Rugby Championship and then take over from Wayne Smith from October 23.
With McLeod departing, it now means the Highlanders have lost three coaches within the past 12 months.
Jamie Joseph went to coach Japan and Tony Brown will join him at the end of the season.
Far from being upset about the exodus, Highlanders chief executive Roger Clark said it showed the Highlanders must be doing something right.
''It is outstanding for him [McLeod]. From the Highlanders' perspective, we are very proud of him and excited for him,'' he said.
''Just like our players, one of our roles is to promote those among us to higher honours. It's like we have almost been too good. But that is what we are here for.''
Clark said McLeod and Tony Brown would not leave straight after the season but would take a full part in the season review and debrief and prepare for next season.
With McLeod out of the picture as a candidate as the head coach - a role he carried out for the Highlanders in their win over the British and Irish Lions last week - the two candidates to take on the job are Mauger and Hammett.
Clark said he had known McLeod was in the mix for the defence job for some time so he had been looking at coaching options.
The Highlanders signed Mauger last month while Hammett joined the squad for this season.
''If we were going to lose Scott then we knew we would have two excellent coaches in Aaron and Hammer [Hammett], who we have full confidence in.
''Then we have Clarke Dermody and Jon Preston, who we know are very capable coaches who we believe able to make the step up. We have all our management team signed on until 2019.''
Preston has been with the franchise since 2013 and works in player development while Dermody, who joined the franchise in 2015, is the scrum coach.
Clark said the franchise would be looking for a defence coach and Dermody and Preston would be in the mix.
''Aaron has been brought in as an attack coach while Mark has been looking after the forwards this year so there is a need for a defence coach.''
The Chiefs appointed their new head coach for 2018, Colin Cooper, before Christmas last year.
Clark said the Highlanders were not in a hurry to name the head coach.
''We're at an advantage in that we have got a lot of players signed up. We've got 75% of our players coming back next year. The Chiefs haven't.
''We have got the All Black captain [Ben Smith], the Maori All Black captain [Ash Dixon], Luke Whitelock, Elliot Dixon. You look at our leadership group and they have been together for a couple of years.''
He said no decision would be made on the next coach until the end of this season.