diff --git a/hack/local-up-cluster.sh b/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
index 584a4e2329e..fe6616f69ed 100755
--- a/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
+++ b/hack/local-up-cluster.sh
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ if (( KUBE_VERBOSE > 4 )); then
 fi
 
 KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")/..
+cd "${KUBE_ROOT}"
 
 # This script builds and runs a local kubernetes cluster. You may need to run
 # this as root to allow kubelet to open containerd's socket, and to write the test