Schelling - who won an Olympic bronze medal at Sochi 2014 - has been give the title general manager and sports director.

The Swiss side are one of the biggest ice hockey clubs outside of the National Hockey League (NHL), often attracting the highest attendances beyond of North America.

SC Bern have won multiple championships in recent years and bring on Schelling after she worked as the head coach of the under-18 Swiss women's team earlier this year. 

Schelling is not the first woman to take up high-profile position in men's ice hockey, with Vicky Mantegazza notably succeeding her father as President of SC Bern's rivals HC Lugano, but she is the first general manager.

Jenny Silfverstrand has been chief executive of Swedish club Djurgarden Stockholm and also worked in the same role for the Swedish Hockey League. 

Following her appointment, Schelling admitted, "I was surprised like all of you when I received the call from [chief executive] Marc Luthi.

"We had a couple of discussions about working together and they were very positive - I knew immediately that I wanted to accept the challenge.

"My main goal is to do a good job and bring SC Bern back to the top."

After a disappointing regular season where SC Bern finished ninth, the 2019 champions have replaced previous general manager Alex Chatelain with Schelling - a move that the club's chief executive Luthi thinks is necessary.

Luthi said: "For us it was important to have a young, intelligent and visionary person, in our thoughts it was irrelevant whether this person would be male or female.

"More important is that the person knows something about hockey.

"She of course played in women's hockey but she also played in men's hockey, knows men's hockey as a TV analyst at Swiss TV, we have the feeling that she will deliver."

In her teens, Schelling played as a goaltender in the top under-17 and under-20 men's leagues for ZSC Lions alongside her brother Philippe and many other future stars.

She made her international debut at 15 years of age at the 2004 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women's World Championship and retired after the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

As well as winning Olympic bronze in 2014, Schelling also won a bronze medal at the 2012 IIHF Women's World Championship.