diff --git a/test/e2e.sh b/test/e2e.sh
index eb9a43584..98a2650a9 100755
--- a/test/e2e.sh
+++ b/test/e2e.sh
@@ -227,23 +227,18 @@ main() {
 
     NODE_NAME=$(kubectl get nodes --no-headers=true -o=name)
 
-    # Build the operator container image.
-    # This would build a container with tag storageos/cluster-operator:test,
-    # which is used in the e2e test setup below.
-    make image/cluster-operator
-
-    # Move the operator container inside Kind container so that the image is
-    # available to the docker in docker environment.
-    if [ "$1" = "kind" ]; then
-        x=$(docker ps -f name=kind-1-control-plane -q)
-        docker save storageos/cluster-operator:test > cluster-operator.tar
-        docker cp cluster-operator.tar $x:/cluster-operator.tar
-
-        # containerd load image from tar archive (KinD with containerd).
-        docker exec $x bash -c "ctr -n k8s.io images import --base-name docker.io/storageos/cluster-operator:test /cluster-operator.tar"
-    fi
-
     if [ "$2" = "olm" ]; then
+        # Build the operator container image.
+        # This would build a container with tag storageos/cluster-operator:test,
+        # which is used in the e2e test setup below.
+        make image/cluster-operator
+
+        # Move the operator container inside Kind container so that the image is
+        # available to the docker in docker environment.
+        if [ "$1" = "kind" ]; then
+            kind load docker-image storageos/cluster-operator:test --name kind-1
+        fi
+
         # Lint the OLM CSV bundle.
         make olm-lint
 
@@ -294,13 +289,13 @@ main() {
         # NOTE: Append this test command with `|| true` to debug by inspecting the
         # resource details. Also comment `defer ctx.Cleanup()` in the cluster to
         # avoid resouce cleanup.
-        operator-sdk test local ./test/e2e --go-test-flags "-v -tags csi" --namespace storageos-operator
+        operator-sdk test local ./test/e2e --up-local --go-test-flags "-v -tags csi" --namespace storageos-operator
         operator-sdk-e2e-cleanup
 
-        operator-sdk test local ./test/e2e --go-test-flags "-v -tags csideployment" --namespace storageos-operator
+        operator-sdk test local ./test/e2e --up-local --go-test-flags "-v -tags csideployment" --namespace storageos-operator
         operator-sdk-e2e-cleanup
 
-        operator-sdk test local ./test/e2e --go-test-flags "-v -tags intree" --namespace storageos-operator
+        operator-sdk test local ./test/e2e --up-local --go-test-flags "-v -tags intree" --namespace storageos-operator
         operator-sdk-e2e-cleanup
 
         # echo "**** Resource details for storageos-operator namespace ****"
diff --git a/test/e2e/util/cluster.go b/test/e2e/util/cluster.go
index f90495628..e880e1fc2 100644
--- a/test/e2e/util/cluster.go
+++ b/test/e2e/util/cluster.go
@@ -68,18 +68,6 @@ func SetupOperator(t *testing.T, ctx *framework.TestCtx) {
 		t.Fatalf("failed to initialize cluster resources: %v", err)
 	}
 	t.Log("Initialized cluster resources")
-
-	namespace, err := ctx.GetNamespace()
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
-
-	f := framework.Global
-
-	err = e2eutil.WaitForDeployment(t, f.KubeClient, namespace, "storageos-cluster-operator", 1, RetryInterval, Timeout)
-	if err != nil {
-		t.Fatal(err)
-	}
 }
 
 // ClusterStatusCheck checks the values of cluster status based on a given