Employee NDA Template
An employee NDA protects confidential information the employer shares with an employee over the course of the job — and assigns ownership of inventions and work product the employee creates while employed. It’s scoped to the employment relationship, not a single deal, so it also covers what happens after the employee leaves. Download the ready-to-fill template below, or read the full clause checklist first.
Download the Employee Non-Disclosure and Invention Assignment Agreement
A complete, ready-to-fill PDF — 13 clauses, blanks for every detail, and a signature block for both parties. Free, no email, no account. Read it and adapt it before you use it; the cover page explains what it can and cannot do for you.
Need the other party to sign it too? Send it for signature with a full audit trail and a tamper-evident seal on the finished file — they never need an account. See pricing.
This is a template, not legal advice
This document is a general-purpose template provided for information only. It is not legal advice, it does not create a lawyer–client relationship, and nobody has reviewed it against your situation.
Laws differ by country, state and province, and they change. A clause that is standard in one place can be unenforceable — or illegal — in another. Terms that are ordinary between two businesses can be void in a consumer or employment context.
Read every clause before you use it, fill in every blank, and delete anything that does not apply. For anything high-value, unusual, or that you could not afford to lose a dispute over, have a qualified lawyer in your jurisdiction review it before it is signed.
What an employee NDA needs
Employer & employee names
Full legal name of the employer (company) and the employee, plus the employee's job title.
Effective date
The date confidentiality obligations start — usually the employee's start date, not necessarily the date the document is signed.
Definition of confidential information
What counts as confidential — trade secrets, customer lists, pricing, source code, and other employees' personnel information. This is one-way: the employer discloses, the employee protects.
Invention & work product assignment
A clause assigning inventions, code, designs and other work the employee creates on the job to the employer — the piece a general NDA doesn't cover but an employee NDA needs.
Own-time carve-out
An exception for inventions the employee creates entirely on their own time, without company resources, and unrelated to the employer's business — required by law in states like California.
Term tied to employment
Unlike a deal-based NDA with a fixed term, this runs for as long as the employment lasts — it isn't scoped to one transaction.
Post-employment survival
How long confidentiality duties continue after the employee leaves — commonly several years, indefinitely for trade secrets.
No change to employment status
A line making clear this Agreement doesn't guarantee continued employment or change at-will status, so it isn't mistaken for an employment contract.
Signatures & date
Both the employer's representative and the employee sign and date the agreement — commonly at the start of employment or onboarding.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using a mutual (two-way) NDA template for an employee, when the relationship is one-way — the employer discloses, the employee protects.
- Leaving out invention and work-product assignment, which is the actual reason most companies need an employee NDA rather than a generic one.
- Skipping the own-time / own-resources carve-out on invention assignment — several US states make an assignment clause unenforceable without it.
- Writing a fixed term (like "two years") instead of tying the term to the length of employment, then having it lapse while the employee is still there.
- Forgetting post-employment survival, so a departing employee reasonably assumes the confidentiality duty ended with the job.
- Blurring this into a full employment contract — an employee NDA covers confidentiality and IP only, not pay, benefits, or termination terms.
Turn this into a signed document
Fill in the template above in any PDF editor, then send it to the new hire for signature. They sign online and never need an account, and the finished file comes back sealed with an audit certificate showing who signed, when, and from where.
Only you need to sign your own copy? Use the free self-sign tool instead — no account needed.
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