diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
index 95d4fe062..b6f8981ac 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
@@ -142,6 +142,9 @@ jobs:
 
     - run: make build.operator
 
+    - name: Test the image by running it with -version flag
+      run: ./bin/manager -version | ./scripts/verify-version.sh ${{ github.repository }}
+
   unit-tests:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
diff --git a/scripts/verify-version.sh b/scripts/verify-version.sh
index 055ae2a93..2d6480d82 100755
--- a/scripts/verify-version.sh
+++ b/scripts/verify-version.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
 set -o nounset
+set -e
 
 get_tag() {
   tag="$(git describe --tags --exact-match HEAD 2>/dev/null)"
@@ -28,6 +29,33 @@ get_release() {
   fi
 }
 
+is_set() {
+  local FIELD="${1}"
+  local GOT_VERSION="${2}"
+
+  if jq -e ".${FIELD} // \"empty\" | test(\"empty\")" <<<"${GOT_VERSION}" >/dev/null 2>/dev/null; then
+    printf "${FIELD} is unset\n"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+  if jq -e ".${FIELD} | test(\"NOT_SET\")" <<<"${GOT_VERSION}" >/dev/null; then
+    printf "${FIELD} is 'NOT_SET' but shouldn't be\n"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+}
+
+field_matches() {
+  local FIELD="${1}"
+  local EXPECTED="${2}"
+  local GOT_VERSION="${3}"
+
+  if jq -e ".${FIELD} | test(\"${EXPECTED}\")" <<<"${GOT_VERSION}" >/dev/null; then
+    printf "${FIELD} matches expected %s\n" ${EXPECTED}
+  else
+    printf "${FIELD} value '%s' does not match, expected %s\n" $(jq -e ".${FIELD}") ${EXPECTED}
+    exit 1
+  fi
+}
+
 if [[ "${#}" != 1 ]]; then
   echo "Usage:"
   echo "verify-version.sh <GITHUB_REPO>"
@@ -47,10 +75,14 @@ EXPECTED_VERSION="$(jq --sort-keys <<< ${EXPECTED_VERSION})"
 GOT_VERSION="$(jq --sort-keys <&0)"
 
 echo "received version info: ${GOT_VERSION}"
-echo "${GOT_VERSION}" | jq -e ".commit | test(\"${COMMIT}\")" || (echo "commit doesn't match: ${GOT_VERSION}" && exit 1)
-echo "${GOT_VERSION}" | jq -e ".repo | test(\"${REPO}\")" || (echo "repo doesn't match: ${GOT_VERSION}" && exit 1)
+
+is_set "commit" "${GOT_VERSION}"
+is_set "repo" "${GOT_VERSION}"
+is_set "release" "${GOT_VERSION}"
+
+field_matches "commit" "${COMMIT}" "${GOT_VERSION}"
+field_matches "repo" "${REPO}" "${GOT_VERSION}"
 # We don't check the the .release field because this script will be run with
 # many pseudo tags that are pushed to container registry like v0.8.0-arm64 or sha-1a9b278-amd64.
-echo "${GOT_VERSION}" | jq -e ".release" || (echo "release doesn't exist in provided version info: ${GOT_VERSION}" && exit 1)
 
 echo "Version information match"