The former Port Adelaide midfielder will work with Stuart Dew as the Swans' assistant midfield coach, after heading up the development department for the past year.
Dew will continue as the Swans' midfield and strategy coach.
In other changes, retired premiership Swan Marty Mattner will move into a role within the club's development department and Jared Crouch will become the head of development.
Coach John Longmire said Francou, who played 156 games for the Power between 1997 and 2005, had plenty to offer the Swans' midfielders.
"We're happy that we've got Josh Francou, who has been with us in development for 12 months, he's come across into our stoppages so he's come into our senior group of coaches," Longmire told the club's website.
"He was a great midfielder himself for Port Adelaide and was a fantastic player.
"He's coached in his own right at North Adelaide and has a teaching background, so he can bring that to the stoppage group and he'll be working with ‘Stewie’ Dew in that midfield area.
"He'll add some great expertise to that area."
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Mattner, who retired mid-way through the 2013 season, will work with the Swans' younger players – in particular their defenders – and will have a game-day role with the club's reserves.
"We've got a few changes there and a few shuffles in our ranks, but we hope that we've got the best possible group that we can," Longmire said.
The Swans are predicting the majority of their players will be available for the first week of training when they return after Christmas.
However, Adam Goodes and Mike Pyke are likely to fully join in later in January after making later starts to their pre-seasons.
Longmire said the Swans had returned from their break "in good nick physically and mentally", which had prepared them for an enhanced level of training from what they had experienced in years gone by.
"It is a tough block pre-Christmas because we try and get as much foundation into our skill work and into our running work," he said.
"A combination of those two areas means that there are a lot of tired boys around at the moment, but it's been very good so far."
Dan Hannebery, Dane Rampe, Brandon Jack and Tom Mitchell have been among the best pre-season performers so far.
