Software Engineer Resignation Letter: Equity Vest, Garden Leave, Handoff

Standard notice in tech

Two weeks for individual contributors, three to four weeks for engineering managers, six to eight weeks for directors and above at large public companies (this is sometimes the published norm and sometimes informally negotiated). At earlier-stage startups (Series A and B) the norm collapses to one to two weeks for everyone because the team cannot absorb a long-tail handoff.

Many large tech employers add a garden-leave clause to senior offer letters. Read your offer letter and employment agreement before you submit notice. If you are subject to garden leave, your employer can require you to stop working immediately on notice but keep paying you for a contractually defined period (typically 30 to 90 days). During garden leave you typically cannot start a competing role, although the specifics vary by contract.

Equity vest cliff timing

Restricted stock units (RSUs) and stock options vest on a published schedule. The standard is a one-year cliff followed by quarterly vesting. Walking out one week before your next vest costs you three months of RSU vesting; one week before your one-year cliff costs you a year of equity. Check your equity schedule before you set the last-day date in your resignation letter.

The vest date your last-day date should target is the day after your next vest, not the vest date itself. Confirm with your equity-administration team (Carta, Shareworks, or in-house) because some companies treat the vest date as inclusive (last-day = vest date is fine) and some as exclusive (last-day = vest date forfeits that vest).

Stock-option exercise windows after termination are usually 90 days for ISOs and longer for NSOs at companies that extend the window. If you hold options you have not exercised, talk to a tax advisor before you give notice. Disqualifying disposition rules and the $100,000 ISO grant limit have non-obvious tax consequences.

Software engineer resignation letter template

On-call rotation and system ownership

The single highest-friction part of a software engineer leaving is orphaned on-call coverage and orphaned system ownership. Before you submit notice, draft a one-page transfer plan that names the successor on-call rotation member for each rotation you are in and the new primary owner for each service or package you are listed as the owner of.

This is the practical part of a clean handoff. It is also the part that gets you a positive reference from the engineering manager calling for your next role. The two-week notice without a written handoff plan reads as a worse resignation than four weeks with one.

Common tech-specific questions