diff --git a/awx/settings/defaults.py b/awx/settings/defaults.py
index 845bbe74d8..ba8b8c69cf 100644
--- a/awx/settings/defaults.py
+++ b/awx/settings/defaults.py
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ AWX_EXECUTION_ENVIRONMENT_DEFAULT_IMAGE = 'quay.io/ansible/awx-ee'
 AWX_CONTAINER_GROUP_K8S_API_TIMEOUT = 10
 AWX_CONTAINER_GROUP_POD_LAUNCH_RETRIES = 100
 AWX_CONTAINER_GROUP_POD_LAUNCH_RETRY_DELAY = 5
-AWX_CONTAINER_GROUP_DEFAULT_NAMESPACE = 'default'
+AWX_CONTAINER_GROUP_DEFAULT_NAMESPACE = os.getenv('MY_POD_NAMESPACE', 'default')
 
 # TODO: remove this setting in favor of a default execution environment
 AWX_CONTAINER_GROUP_DEFAULT_IMAGE = AWX_EXECUTION_ENVIRONMENT_DEFAULT_IMAGE