diff --git a/extras/startup-scripts/README.md b/extras/startup-scripts/README.md
index 244ee65e..7cc0d445 100644
--- a/extras/startup-scripts/README.md
+++ b/extras/startup-scripts/README.md
@@ -8,3 +8,6 @@ Scripts supplied:
 ### patroni.upstart.conf
 
 Upstart job for Ubuntu 12.04 or 14.04.  Requires Upstart > 1.4. Intended for systems where Patroni has been installed on a base system, rather than in Docker.
+
+### patroni.service
+Systemd service file, to be copied to /etc/systemd/system/patroni.service, tested on Centos 7.1 with Patroni installed from pip. 
diff --git a/extras/startup-scripts/patroni.service b/extras/startup-scripts/patroni.service
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fdd7558b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/extras/startup-scripts/patroni.service
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# This is an example systemd config file for Patroni
+# You can copy it to "/etc/systemd/system/patroni.service",
+
+[Unit]
+Description=Runners to orchestrate a high-availability PostgreSQL
+After=syslog.target network.target
+
+[Service]
+Type=simple
+
+User=postgres
+Group=postgres
+
+# Where to send early-startup messages from the server
+# This is normally controlled by the global default set by systemd
+# StandardOutput=syslog
+
+ExecStart=/bin/patroni /etc/patroni.yml
+
+# Give a reasonable amount of time for the server to start up/shut down
+TimeoutSec=10
+
+# Do not restart the service if it crashes, we want to manually inspect database on failure
+Restart=no
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target
+