diff --git a/contrib/README.md b/contrib/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bd9e661cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+## contrib
+
+Scripts and files which may be useful but aren't part of the core etcd project.
+
+- [systemd](systemd) - an example unit file for deploying etcd on systemd-based distributions
diff --git a/contrib/systemd/etcd.service b/contrib/systemd/etcd.service
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8a128ba61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/systemd/etcd.service
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+[Unit]
+Description=etcd key-value store
+Documentation=https://github.com/coreos/etcd
+
+[Service]
+User=etcd
+Type=notify
+Environment=ETCD_DATA_DIR=/var/lib/etcd
+Environment=ETCD_NAME=%m
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/etcd
+Restart=always
+RestartSec=10s
+LimitNOFILE=40000
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target