The 39-year-old Sharks head coach, who has spent the past five years at Edgeley Park as Saint-Andre's trusted loyal lieutenant, will step into the hot seat next May when the Frenchman leaves the club.
In the interim, though still officially employed as number two, Jones will be responsible for player recruitment and overall forward planning.
And the former Wales captain revealed he already has a firm vision in place for where he wants to take Sale.
But rather than looking to dismantle the current Sharks set-up and start afresh, Jones insists he wants to build on the solid foundations which he believes can fire the 2006 Guinness Premiership champions to yet more glory this season.
Opportunity
"This is a great opportunity and one of the most sought-after jobs in world rugby and I'm very excited about it," Jones admitted.
"The club's owner Brian Kennedy would have been inundated with CVs if the post had been advertised and I know I'm very lucky to take over.
"It's one thing getting the job and Philippe's are big shoes to fill. But I have a lot of ideas of my own and I'll change a few things as I want us to take-off from where we are now.
"The players know me and I know them. Of course, there will be one or two guys happy and one or two not so happy, but that's life whenever there's a change.
"But I will be looking to make some changes. I've got a clear idea of what I want going forward. The Academy here is very important as well.
"We need to keep developing talent and to have an avenue for players to come through, not developing players to move on to Northampton or anywhere else.
"We have a spine of the team that is very, very strong but we'll recruit as well when we need to, for quality players, as we have done in the past, so I'll be looking for a balance of the three."
In the meantime, Jones will continue in his role as head coach and he insists that a Sale squad which is top of their Heineken Cup group at the halfway stage, and sitting fourth in the Guinness Premiership, can help give Saint-Andre the perfect send-off by claiming yet more silverware.
"Philippe confided his plans to me a couple of weeks ago and we have discussed the best way for this to work. And I think we saw on Friday in our Heineken Cup win over Montauban, the guys will really play for him.
"Everyone at the club fully respects him and there would be nothing better for us than to help Philippe finish with another trophy.
"Hopefully, the news will galvanise everybody and we'll all pull together for him between now and May."
Long-term, one of Jones' main challenges will be to maintain the steady flow of high-class talent that has paraded through the Edegley Park door during Saint-Andre's tenure.
And while Jones acknowledged the respect in which Saint-Andre is held in the game, he pointed out his own not insignificant past record, as well as his own role in helping some of the game's biggest names to the North West, most notably All Black superstar Luke McAlister.
"I would say one of Philippe's big strengths is his name and pulling power. He was such a legend as a player and that's undoubtedly been a big draw for players when he's been coach," Jones went on.
"But I'm reasonably well known in New Zealand, I captained my country so people know all about me in Wales. I've been around, I've captained club sides too so I'm well known around the game.
"But I think you move on as well. I'm not Kingsley the player, I'm Kingsley the coach and my CV has been about coaching Sale Sharks for the past five years, where we've done reasonably well.
"A lot of the players that we have recruited in the past few years have been through me so I'm confident that will continue.
Contacts
"Of course, the French guys and the Argentine guys that have come here did so through knowing Philippe.
"But the Welsh and the Kiwis we've recruited have been through contacts of mine so I'm confident that I can carry that on and I'm also keen to ensure that we take French and Argentine players going forward.
"I'm already thinking about recruitment and am meeting a couple of players this week.
"The market starts soon and we need to be on the ball. I've got a clear vision of where we want to improve, where we need to recruit but it's important we don't block the avenue for the likes of Carl Fearns and other Academy players as well.
"And if you look at it, we've got a very strong spine of the side under contract. You've got Andrew Sheridan, Chris Jones, Sean Cox, Brent Cockbain, Dean Schofield, Juan Lobbe, Kristian Ormsby, Richard Wigglesworth, Dwayne Peel, Mathew Tait, Charlie Hodgson and Mark Cueto signed up until 2010 at least.
"So we'll recruit where we need to but we'll be building around those players."
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