Employment contract for a software developer

A software developer's contract is mostly about ownership: the code the developer writes belongs to the employer by default, but the edges (side projects, open source contributions, work done before joining, inventions) are where disputes and failed due diligence come from. The contract also has to carry the security obligations of someone with access to the systems, set hours for a role with on-call and remote elements, and provide for the equity or options that technology employers use to retain engineers. The contract is drafted for the employer as a reusable template for the grade, for a fixed fee of £595 and delivery in five working days.

Who this is for

Software companies, start-ups and businesses with in-house engineering teams in England and Wales employing developers, engineers, data scientists and technical staff.

What matters in a software developer's contract

Intellectual property in code, inventions and the employee's own projects

Copyright in code written by an employee in the course of employment belongs to the employer under section 11 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and inventions made in the course of normal duties belong to the employer under section 39 of the Patents Act 1977, and the contract should confirm both, waive moral rights, extend the assignment to work done outside hours or on the employee's own equipment where it relates to the employer's business, require disclosure of relevant inventions, and provide for the employee to sign confirmatory assignments on request; the clause is what an acquirer's lawyers read first, and it should leave no gap between what the employee wrote and what the employer owns.

Open source, side projects and prior work

The contract should set the employer's policy on open source: which licences may be used in the employer's code, the approval process, and the position on the employee's contributions to open source projects in the employer's time or using its code; it should allow side projects that do not compete with or use the employer's business, with disclosure and a stated process, and should schedule any software the employee created before joining that is excluded from the assignment, because an employer that bans all outside coding loses engineers and one that ignores it ends up with a product whose ownership is contested.

Confidentiality, systems access and security

The contract should impose confidentiality on source code, architecture, credentials, customer data and product plans, require compliance with the employer's information security policies (access controls, secure development, no copying of repositories, no personal devices for production access unless approved), restrict access to what the role needs under the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the employer's authorisation, require the return of all code, documentation and access on leaving, and prohibit the retention of copies; a developer who leaves with a copy of the repository has committed the breach the contract should have made explicit.

Hours, on-call and remote working

The contract should state the hours and the hybrid or remote arrangement, the on-call rota and the payment or time off for it (on-call time counts as working time when the employee must be at a place the employer requires, and the Working Time Regulations 1998 limits and rest apply), the forty-eight hour average with any opt-out signed separately, and the employer's expectations around releases and incidents; the written particulars under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 must state the hours and the place of work, and the remote working provisions should address equipment, security and working abroad.

Pay, equity and the retention terms

The contract should state the salary, any bonus and its basis, and the equity or option arrangements the employer offers (options under the Enterprise Management Incentives scheme in Schedule 5 to the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 where the company qualifies, under a separate option agreement the contract refers to), with the vesting and leaver terms in the option documents and the restricted securities election under section 431 of that Act where shares are acquired; the contract should say that the options are governed by the scheme rules, so that the employment contract does not promise what the scheme does not give.

Covenants, notice and the particulars

The contract supplies the written particulars from day one, states the probation period and notice, never shorter than section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 allows (longer notice for senior engineers, with garden leave), contains confidentiality that survives, a non-solicitation of staff and, where the role has customer contact, of customers, and a non-compete only for senior engineers with knowledge of the product's roadmap, limited to competing products and a short period; the usual terms on sick pay, the pension assessment the Pensions Act 2008 imposes, annual leave under the Working Time Regulations 1998, the handbook and the disciplinary and grievance procedures apply.

What it costs

Employment contract, £595. One template you can reuse for a grade of staff. Five working days.

Staff handbook and core policies, £995. Five working days.

Buying online forms the engagement on payment. The scope is what the employment contracts and handbooks page describes, you accept the Terms of Service at checkout, and I email you within four working hours to get started. If you would rather ask something first, email me.

What you get

• A bespoke contract drafted for how you employ people
• Restrictive covenants drafted at a scope a court will uphold
• Confidentiality and intellectual property provisions that put ownership where it belongs
• The statutory particulars, so the document does the job section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires it to do
• Flexibility clauses where you genuinely need them, drafted to survive challenge
• Core policies: disciplinary, grievance, sickness absence, equal opportunities, data protection and, increasingly, AI use
• One round of amendments

What is not included

• Acting for employees
• Employment tribunal representation
• Payroll, pensions auto-enrolment and tax
• Immigration and sponsor licence work
• Day to day HR handling, disciplinaries, grievances and redundancy processes

Questions I am often asked

Do we own code a developer writes at the weekend on their own laptop?

Only if it relates to the employer's business or uses its materials and the contract extends the assignment to it, which this contract does. Unrelated side projects stay with the employee, with disclosure.

Can we stop a developer contributing to open source?

You can set a policy on contributions in the employer's time or using its code, and the contract does. A blanket ban on contributing to open source in the employee's own time is hard to justify and loses engineers.

A developer wrote our product before we employed them. Do we own it?

Not through the employment contract, which covers work done in employment. Prior work needs a separate assignment, which the contract schedules and refers to.

Related guidance and services

• Employment contracts and handbooks, £595, the service this page describes
• Consultancy and contractor agreements, £595
• Settlement agreements for employers, £795
• Contractor agreement for a software developer
• Shareholders agreement for a company issuing EMI options

This page is general guidance for businesses in England and Wales, not advice on your own circumstances. Last reviewed: October 2026. Email geoffrey@caesar.co.uk.