diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ea8f59673..75ed7d4f8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -75,7 +75,10 @@ The e2e tests can be executed locally by running the following commands:
       - 'system:serviceaccount:$(namespace):kuberay-operator'
     ```
 
-4. In a separate terminal, run the e2e suite:
+4.  In a separate terminal, set your output directory for test files, and run the e2e suite:
+    ```bash
+    export CODEFLARE_TEST_OUTPUT_DIR=<your_output_directory>
+    ```
 
     ```bash
     make test-e2e
diff --git a/test/e2e/mnist_pytorch_mcad_job_test.go b/test/e2e/mnist_pytorch_mcad_job_test.go
index adbf11bc5..754121a39 100644
--- a/test/e2e/mnist_pytorch_mcad_job_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/mnist_pytorch_mcad_job_test.go
@@ -77,15 +77,23 @@ func TestMNISTPyTorchMCAD(t *testing.T) {
 				Spec: corev1.PodSpec{
 					Containers: []corev1.Container{
 						{
-							Name:    "job",
-							Image:   GetPyTorchImage(),
+							Name:  "job",
+							Image: GetPyTorchImage(),
+							Env: []corev1.EnvVar{
+								corev1.EnvVar{Name: "PYTHONUSERBASE", Value: "/workdir"},
+							},
 							Command: []string{"/bin/sh", "-c", "pip install -r /test/requirements.txt && torchrun /test/mnist.py"},
 							VolumeMounts: []corev1.VolumeMount{
 								{
 									Name:      "test",
 									MountPath: "/test",
 								},
+								{
+									Name:      "workdir",
+									MountPath: "/workdir",
+								},
 							},
+							WorkingDir: "/workdir",
 						},
 					},
 					Volumes: []corev1.Volume{
@@ -99,6 +107,12 @@ func TestMNISTPyTorchMCAD(t *testing.T) {
 								},
 							},
 						},
+						{
+							Name: "workdir",
+							VolumeSource: corev1.VolumeSource{
+								EmptyDir: &corev1.EmptyDirVolumeSource{},
+							},
+						},
 					},
 					RestartPolicy: corev1.RestartPolicyNever,
 				},
diff --git a/test/e2e/mnist_raycluster_sdk_test.go b/test/e2e/mnist_raycluster_sdk_test.go
index 0089dccab..8a3bc3904 100644
--- a/test/e2e/mnist_raycluster_sdk_test.go
+++ b/test/e2e/mnist_raycluster_sdk_test.go
@@ -160,14 +160,22 @@ func TestMNISTRayClusterSDK(t *testing.T) {
 							Name: "test",
 							// FIXME: switch to base Python image once the dependency on OpenShift CLI is removed
 							// See https://github.com/project-codeflare/codeflare-sdk/pull/146
-							Image:   "quay.io/opendatahub/notebooks:jupyter-minimal-ubi8-python-3.8-4c8f26e",
+							Image: "quay.io/opendatahub/notebooks:jupyter-minimal-ubi8-python-3.8-4c8f26e",
+							Env: []corev1.EnvVar{
+								corev1.EnvVar{Name: "PYTHONUSERBASE", Value: "/workdir"},
+							},
 							Command: []string{"/bin/sh", "-c", "pip install codeflare-sdk==" + GetCodeFlareSDKVersion() + " && cp /test/* . && python mnist_raycluster_sdk.py" + " " + namespace.Name},
 							VolumeMounts: []corev1.VolumeMount{
 								{
 									Name:      "test",
 									MountPath: "/test",
 								},
+								{
+									Name:      "workdir",
+									MountPath: "/workdir",
+								},
 							},
+							WorkingDir: "/workdir",
 						},
 					},
 					Volumes: []corev1.Volume{
@@ -181,6 +189,12 @@ func TestMNISTRayClusterSDK(t *testing.T) {
 								},
 							},
 						},
+						{
+							Name: "workdir",
+							VolumeSource: corev1.VolumeSource{
+								EmptyDir: &corev1.EmptyDirVolumeSource{},
+							},
+						},
 					},
 					RestartPolicy:      corev1.RestartPolicyNever,
 					ServiceAccountName: serviceAccount.Name,