diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 505ade1ed56c..85a7cc029bb2 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -672,7 +672,7 @@ cpo-container-sync:
 # - current context to be set to a hosted cluster with AutoNode enabled.
 # - an annotation to be applied to the HCP to stop reconcillation (hypershift.openshift.io/karpenter-core-e2e-override=true)
 .PHONY: karpenter-upstream-e2e
-karpenter-upstream-e2e:
+karpenter-upstream-e2e: $(YQ)
 	./karpenter-operator/e2e/upstream-e2e.sh
 
 ## --------------------------------------
diff --git a/karpenter-operator/e2e/adjust-ec2nodeclass.sh b/karpenter-operator/e2e/adjust-ec2nodeclass.sh
index 86f71706079e..88aebd93151a 100755
--- a/karpenter-operator/e2e/adjust-ec2nodeclass.sh
+++ b/karpenter-operator/e2e/adjust-ec2nodeclass.sh
@@ -2,8 +2,12 @@
 
 FILE=$1
 
+SCRIPT_DIR=$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)
+REPO_ROOT=$(cd "${SCRIPT_DIR}/../.." && pwd)
+YQ="${REPO_ROOT}/hack/tools/bin/yq"
+
 # delete metadata fields
-yq 'del(.metadata.creationTimestamp, .metadata.generation, .metadata.managedFields, .metadata.resourceVersion, .metadata.selfLink, .metadata.uid)' -i "$FILE"
+$YQ 'del(.metadata.creationTimestamp, .metadata.generation, .metadata.managedFields, .metadata.resourceVersion, .metadata.selfLink, .metadata.uid)' -i "$FILE"
 
 # delete status
-yq 'del(.status)' -i "$FILE"
+$YQ 'del(.status)' -i "$FILE"