diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
index cf0ae5f95..bd45a6d07 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
@@ -59,15 +59,15 @@ jobs:
           docker build --progress=plain --no-cache -f ./Dockerfile -t flink-kubernetes-operator:ci-latest --progress plain --build-arg JAVA_VERSION="${JAVA_VERSION:-11}" --build-arg HTTP_CLIENT="${HTTP_CLIENT:-okhttp}" .
           docker images
       - name: Create ${{ inputs.namespace }} == ${{ inputs.create-namespace }}
-        if: inputs.create_namespace
+        id: namespace-creator
+        if: ${{ inputs.create-namespace }}
         run: |
           source e2e-tests/utils.sh
           create_namespace flink
-          echo JAVA_VERSION=${JAVA_VERSION:out of scope}
-          export EXTRA_HELM_INSTALL_ARGS="--set "watchNamespaces={default,flink}""
+          echo EXTRA_HELM_INSTALL_ARGS="--set "watchNamespaces={default,flink}"" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUTS
       - name: Start the operator
         run: |
-          helm --debug install flink-kubernetes-operator -n ${{ inputs.namespace }} helm/flink-kubernetes-operator --set image.repository=flink-kubernetes-operator --set image.tag=ci-latest ${EXTRA_HELM_INSTALL_ARGS} 
+          helm --debug install flink-kubernetes-operator -n ${{ inputs.namespace }} helm/flink-kubernetes-operator --set image.repository=flink-kubernetes-operator --set image.tag=ci-latest ${{ steps.namespace-creator.outputs.EXTRA_HELM_INSTALL_ARGS }} 
           kubectl wait --for=condition=Available --timeout=120s -n ${{ inputs.namespace }} deploy/flink-kubernetes-operator
           kubectl get pods -n ${{ inputs.namespace }}
       - name: Run Flink e2e tests