diff --git a/Jenkinsfile b/Jenkinsfile
index e3788abd6f..ad61a10c74 100644
--- a/Jenkinsfile
+++ b/Jenkinsfile
@@ -182,20 +182,20 @@ try {
                 def stage_name = 'Kubernetes Docker image node: '
                 def image = imageRepos + '/pantheon-kubernetes:' + imageTag
                 def kubernetes_folder = 'kubernetes'
+                def kubernetes_image_build_script = kubernetes_folder + '/build_image.sh'
                 def version_property_file = 'gradle.properties'
                 def reports_folder = kubernetes_folder + '/reports'
                 def dockerfile = kubernetes_folder + '/Dockerfile'
                 node {
                     checkout scm
+                    unstash 'distTarBall'
                     docker.image(build_image).inside() {
                         stage(stage_name + 'Dockerfile lint') {
                             sh "docker run --rm -i hadolint/hadolint < ${dockerfile}"
                         }
-
                         stage(stage_name + 'Build image') {
-                            sh './gradlew docker'
+                            sh "${kubernetes_image_build_script} '${image}'"
                         }
-
                         stage(stage_name + "Test image labels") {
                             shortCommit = sh(returnStdout: true, script: "git log -n 1 --pretty=format:'%h'").trim()
                             version = sh(returnStdout: true, script: "grep -oE \"version=(.*)\" ${version_property_file} | cut -d= -f2").trim()
@@ -208,7 +208,6 @@ try {
     ${image} \
     | grep ${version}"
                         }
-
                         try {
                             stage(stage_name + 'Test image') {
                                 sh "mkdir -p ${reports_folder}"
diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 664c38514d..161259f5f6 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -13,8 +13,6 @@
 
 import net.ltgt.gradle.errorprone.CheckSeverity
 
-import java.text.SimpleDateFormat
-
 plugins {
   id 'com.diffplug.gradle.spotless' version '3.23.1'
   id 'com.jfrog.bintray' version '1.8.4'
@@ -24,7 +22,6 @@ plugins {
   id 'me.champeau.gradle.jmh' version '0.4.8' apply false
   id 'net.ltgt.errorprone' version '0.8.1'
   id 'net.researchgate.release' version '2.7.0'
-  id "com.palantir.docker" version "0.22.1"
 }
 
 group = 'tech.pegasys.pantheon'
@@ -477,35 +474,6 @@ distZip {
   }
 }
 
-// rename the top level dir from pantheon-<version> to pantheon and this makes it really
-// simple for use in docker
-tasks.register("dockerDistUntar") {
-  dependsOn distTar
-  def dockerBuildDir = "build/distributions/docker-pantheon/"
-  def distTarFile = distTar.outputs.files.singleFile
-  def distTarFileName = distTar.outputs.files.singleFile.name.replace(".tar.gz", "")
-
-  doFirst {
-    new File(dockerBuildDir).mkdir()
-    copy {
-      from tarTree(distTarFile)
-      into(dockerBuildDir)
-    }
-    file("${dockerBuildDir}/${distTarFileName}").renameTo("${dockerBuildDir}/pantheon")
-  }
-}
-
-docker {
-  def image_tag = "develop"
-  dependsOn dockerDistUntar
-  name "pegasyseng/pantheon-kubernetes:${image_tag}"
-  dockerfile file('kubernetes/Dockerfile')
-  files "build/distributions/docker-pantheon/"
-  buildArgs(['BUILD_DATE': buildTime(), 'VERSION': rootProject.version, 'VCS_REF': getCheckedOutGitCommitHash()])
-  pull true
-  noCache true
-}
-
 task jacocoRootReport(type: org.gradle.testing.jacoco.tasks.JacocoReport) {
   additionalSourceDirs.from files(subprojects.sourceSets.main.allSource.srcDirs)
   sourceDirectories.from files(subprojects.sourceSets.main.allSource.srcDirs)
@@ -531,14 +499,6 @@ configure(subprojects.findAll { it.name != 'errorprone-checks' }) {
   }
 }
 
-// http://label-schema.org/rc1/
-// using the RFC3339 format "2016-04-12T23:20:50.52Z"
-def buildTime() {
-  def df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm'Z'")
-  df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"))
-  return df.format(new Date())
-}
-
 // Takes the version, and if -SNAPSHOT is part of it replaces SNAPSHOT
 // with the git commit version.
 def calculateVersion() {
diff --git a/docker/.gitignore b/docker/.gitignore
index 3ea01bdaea..91b4176f64 100644
--- a/docker/.gitignore
+++ b/docker/.gitignore
@@ -1,2 +1 @@
 pantheon-*.tar.gz
-pantheon/*
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/kubernetes/Dockerfile b/kubernetes/Dockerfile
index d6d7372342..18a40ea434 100644
--- a/kubernetes/Dockerfile
+++ b/kubernetes/Dockerfile
@@ -1,19 +1,27 @@
+# extract image stage
+# extractin here reduces the number of layers in the final image
+FROM alpine:3.9 AS extract-stage
+# Copy Pantheon binaries from previous jenkins artefact step
+# or from the result of ./gradlew distTar
+# and lett ADD unpack them
+ADD pantheon-*.tar.gz /tmp/
 
+# Run image stage
+# Use openJDK JRE only for running pantheon
 FROM openjdk:11.0.2-jre-slim-stretch
-
-COPY pantheon /opt/pantheon/
+# Copy extracted binaries from the previous step image
+COPY --from=extract-stage /tmp/pantheon* /opt/pantheon
 WORKDIR /opt/pantheon
-
 # Expose services ports
 # 8545 HTTP JSON-RPC
 # 8546 WS JSON-RPC
 # 8547 HTTP GraphQL
 # 30303 P2P
 EXPOSE 8545 8546 8547 30303
-
 ENTRYPOINT ["/opt/pantheon/bin/pantheon"]
-
 # Build-time metadata as defined at http://label-schema.org
+# Use the build_image.sh script in the kubernetes directory of this project to
+# easily build this image or as an example of how to inject build parameters.
 ARG BUILD_DATE
 ARG VCS_REF
 ARG VERSION
diff --git a/kubernetes/build_image.sh b/kubernetes/build_image.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..825a87e68f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kubernetes/build_image.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+#!/bin/sh -e
+# This script presents a sample way to build Pantheon Docker image
+# with automatic build arguments from the current build workspace.
+# It must be started from the same path as where the Dockerfile is located.
+# you have to pass the imnage tag as an argument like for instance :
+# build_image.sh "pegasyseng/pantheon-kubernetes:develop"
+
+CONTEXT_FOLDER=kubernetes/
+PANTHEON_BUILD_SOURCE='build/distributions/pantheon-*.tar.gz'
+
+# Checking that you passed the tag for the image to be build
+if [ -z "$1" ]
+  then
+    me=`basename "$0"`
+    echo "No image tag argument supplied to ${me}"
+    echo "ex.: ${me} \"pegasyseng/pantheon-kubernetes:develop\""
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# looking for the distribution archive, either form CI step that builds form this
+# workspace sources but with multiple test steps first
+# or it builds it if you don't have one as you are probably
+# not in a CI step.
+if ls ${PANTHEON_BUILD_SOURCE} 1> /dev/null 2>&1; then
+    cp ${PANTHEON_BUILD_SOURCE} ${CONTEXT_FOLDER}
+else
+    echo "No pantheon-*.tar.gz archive found."
+    echo "You are probably not running this from CI so running './gradlew distTar' first to have a local build"
+    ./gradlew distTar
+    cp ${PANTHEON_BUILD_SOURCE} ${CONTEXT_FOLDER}
+fi
+
+# Builds docker image with tags matching the info form this current workspace
+docker build \
+-t "$1" \
+--build-arg BUILD_DATE="`date`" \
+--build-arg VCS_REF="`git show -s --format=%h`" \
+--build-arg VERSION="`grep -oE "version=(.*)" gradle.properties | cut -d= -f2`" \
+${CONTEXT_FOLDER}