Premier originally understood that its head of radio and education, James Purnell, would be taking over the role after Ahmed left the corporation earlier this month.
Purnell will be adding oversight of religious programming to his existing workload but the corporation will not be recruiting a new head of religion and ethics, whose only job would be to create, lead and promote faith-based content.
A spokesman explained to Premier that Purnell will help promote "synergy" in the BBC's religious programming between radio, television and news, aiming to help the various staff responsible for it work better together.
He will also be part of a round-table meeting in January with the director general Tony Hall with faith leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, to discuss how the corporation should go about making religious broadcasting.
The meeting comes amid different critiques of the corporation, with some campaigners saying there is not enough Christian broadcasting and others saying there is too much.
The spokesman said: "This is a coordinating role to ensure the BBC does everything it can and should across all its religious output and to have a voice at the top table.
"It is not a restructure and there are no changes in reporting or commissioning lines.
"The BBC takes religion incredibly seriously."
