The FIRST-TF network is directed by Yann Le Coq (SYRTE) and co-directed by François Vernotte (FEMTO-ST). The former director was Noël Dimarcq (SYRTE) over the period 2010-2018.

Its governance is based on:

One Bureau which is in charge of implementation and current operation of the different aspects of the network (call for proposals, membership demands, …).
Gathered around the director and co-director, the Bureau comprises the administrative responsible of FIRST-TF (Marine Pailler, SYRTE), a program manager (Fatim Hankard), representatives from each of the five founder labs: FEMTO-ST (Yann Kersalé), GEOAZUR (Julien Chabé, Clément Courde), LPL (Frédéric Du Burck, Vincent Roncin), SYRTE (Philip Tuckey, Luca Lorini), UTINAM (François Meyer) and representatives from two Equipex : Oscillator IMP (Enrico Rubiola) and Refimeve+ (Paul-Eric Pottie).

One Steering committee which defines axes of FIRST-TF, examines membership demands, suggest strategic orientations, ranks the demands after a call for proposals, etc. It comprises representatives from each direction team of the 5 founder labs, the director of FIRST-TF network and 6 scientific experts: Mehdi Alouini (FOTON), Caroline Champenois (PIIM), Bruno Desruelles (Muquans), François-Xavier Esnault (CNES), François Nez (LKB), Gianna Panfillo (BIPM).

One Strategic committee which endorses proposals made by the steering committee and play the role of a inter-institutions committee for Time-Frequency in France. It comprises representatives from parent institutions  and the director of FIRST-TF network. Representatives from ANR, CNES, DGA and CNRS regional delegation which is the credits manager attributed by ANR to FIRST-TF Labex, are permanently invited with consultative voice.