Joe Schoen strengthened the Giants’ front office Sunday by adding one of the executives he edged out to become the general manager. 

Ryan Cowden, who interviewed for the Giants general manager vacancy in January 2022 before the job went to Schoen, is expected to be hired in an unspecified role, sources told The Post. 

It is a reunion years in the making for Schoen and Cowden, who first met as young scouts in the Panthers organization nearly two decades ago.

While Schoen moved on to the Dolphins and Bills before finding his way to the Giants, Cowden climbed the ladder in Carolina and even worked as assistant director of college scouting under then-general manager Dave Gettleman through 2015. 

“Ryan and Joe bought into their study and thought process about players, and they weren’t always playing the middle of the road,” Dan Henning, the Panthers offensive coordinator at the time, told The Post in 2022. “They had definite opinions. I was impressed that at 22 years old, they couldn’t be knocked off their perch.” 

Cowden became director of player personnel for the Titans in 2016 and ultimately was named interim general manager when Jon Robinson was fired last December.

That seems significant because Cowden was tapped over fellow in-house candidate Monti Ossenfort, another former Giants candidate who was just hired as Cardinals general manager. 

Cowden previously interviewed to be the general manager of the Commanders and Steelers as well as the Giants and had an interview for the full-time job with the Titans that eventually went to Ran Carthon instead.

He parted ways with the Titans after the NFL draft. 

The Virginia native is a former college football player at Wofford University.