diff --git a/.gitlab/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 6390da8ad..b72fc4d35 100644
--- a/.gitlab/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -200,5 +200,8 @@ build container fb:
 deploy node for linux amd64:
   stage: lint
   image: registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/cloud-deploy/aws-base:latest
+  before_script:
+    - apt update && apt -y install jq
+    - 'which ssh-agent || ( apt-get update -y && apt-get install openssh-client -y )'
   script:
     - ./qa/scripts/deployNode.sh $AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID $AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY $AWS_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY
diff --git a/qa/scripts/deployNode.sh b/qa/scripts/deployNode.sh
index 6455c8ea1..7ba33a516 100755
--- a/qa/scripts/deployNode.sh
+++ b/qa/scripts/deployNode.sh
@@ -11,14 +11,10 @@ function configure_env() {
     chmod 400 gitlab-featurebase-dev.pem
 
     # set up ssh permissions 
-    which ssh-agent || ( apt-get update -y && apt-get install openssh-client -y )
     eval `ssh-agent -s`
     mkdir -p ~/.ssh
-    echo "$AWS_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY" | ssh-add -
+    echo $AWS_SSH_PRIVATE_KEY | ssh-add -
     chmod 700 /root/.ssh
-
-    # install jq
-    apt update && apt -y install jq
 }
 
 function deploy_node() {