diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 89124b37a..fe90c5284 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -63,6 +63,10 @@ NPD_NAME_VERSION?=node-problem-detector-$(VERSION)
 # TARBALL is the name of release tar. Include binary version by default.
 TARBALL=$(NPD_NAME_VERSION).tar.gz
 
+# IMAGE_ARCHIVE is the single-arch (linux/amd64) image tarball built by
+# `build-image-archive` for side-loading onto node e2e VMs.
+IMAGE_ARCHIVE?=node-problem-detector-image.tar
+
 # IMAGE_TAGS contains the image tags of the node problem detector container image.
 IMAGE_TAGS=--tag $(REGISTRY)/node-problem-detector:$(TAG)
 IMAGE_TAGS_WINDOWS=--tag $(REGISTRY)/node-problem-detector-windows:$(TAG)
@@ -304,6 +308,12 @@ build-container: clean Dockerfile
 	docker buildx create --platform $(DOCKER_PLATFORMS) --use
 	docker buildx build --platform $(DOCKER_PLATFORMS) $(IMAGE_TAGS) --build-arg LOGCOUNTER=$(LOGCOUNTER) .
 
+# build-image-archive builds the linux/amd64 image into a docker-archive tarball
+# ($(IMAGE_ARCHIVE)) for side-loading onto node e2e VMs with `ctr images import`.
+build-image-archive: clean Dockerfile
+	docker buildx create --platform linux/amd64 --use
+	docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64 --output type=docker,dest=$(IMAGE_ARCHIVE) $(IMAGE_TAGS) --build-arg LOGCOUNTER=$(LOGCOUNTER) .
+
 build-container-windows: clean Dockerfile.windows
 	docker buildx create --platform windows/amd64 --use
 	docker buildx build --platform windows/amd64 $(IMAGE_TAGS_WINDOWS) -f Dockerfile.windows .
diff --git a/test/build.sh b/test/build.sh
index 6a351cf56..82b7b88a2 100755
--- a/test/build.sh
+++ b/test/build.sh
@@ -23,7 +23,11 @@ set -o pipefail
 
 
 NPD_STAGING_PATH=${NPD_STAGING_PATH:-"gs://k8s-staging-npd"}
-NPD_STAGING_REGISTRY=${NPD_STAGING_REGISTRY:-"gcr.io/node-problem-detector-staging"}
+NPD_STAGING_REGISTRY=${NPD_STAGING_REGISTRY:-"gcr.io/k8s-staging-npd"}
+# IMAGE_ARCHIVE is a single-arch (linux/amd64) image tarball that the node e2e
+# VM side-loads into containerd (see test/sideload-image.sh), so the test runs
+# the image built from this PR/CI run without pushing to a registry.
+IMAGE_ARCHIVE=${IMAGE_ARCHIVE:-"node-problem-detector-image.tar"}
 PR_ENV_FILENAME=${PR_ENV_FILENAME:-"pr.env"}
 CI_ENV_FILENAME=${CI_ENV_FILENAME:-"ci.env"}
 CI_CUSTOM_FLAGS_ENV_FILENAME=${CI_CUSTOM_FLAGS_ENV_FILENAME:-"ci-custom-flags.env"}
@@ -81,6 +85,7 @@ export NODE_PROBLEM_DETECTOR_RELEASE_PATH=${UPLOAD_PATH/gs:\/\//${GCS_URL_PREFIX
 export NODE_PROBLEM_DETECTOR_VERSION=${VERSION}
 export NODE_PROBLEM_DETECTOR_TAR_HASH=$(sha1sum ${ROOT_PATH}/node-problem-detector-${VERSION}-linux_amd64.tar.gz | cut -d ' ' -f1)
 export EXTRA_ENVS=NODE_PROBLEM_DETECTOR_IMAGE=${REGISTRY}/node-problem-detector:${TAG}
+export NODE_PROBLEM_DETECTOR_IMAGE_ARCHIVE_URL=${UPLOAD_PATH/gs:\/\//${GCS_URL_PREFIX}}/${IMAGE_ARCHIVE}
 EOF
 
   if [[ -n "${NODE_PROBLEM_DETECTOR_CUSTOM_FLAGS:-}" ]]; then
@@ -129,7 +134,8 @@ function build-pr() {
   export REGISTRY="${NPD_STAGING_REGISTRY}/pr/${PR}"
   export VERSION=$(get-version)
   export TAG="${VERSION}"
-  make push-tar
+  make push-tar build-image-archive
+  gsutil cp "${ROOT_PATH}/${IMAGE_ARCHIVE}" "${UPLOAD_PATH}/"
   write-env-file ${PR_ENV_FILENAME}
 }
 
@@ -139,10 +145,11 @@ function build-ci() {
   export REGISTRY="${NPD_STAGING_REGISTRY}/ci"
   export VERSION="$(get-version)-$(date +%Y%m%d.%H%M)"
   export TAG="${VERSION}"
-  # e2e tests consume the tarball, not the container
-  # this is simpler to manage in the infra, and we still ensure the container
-  # build works locally
-  make push-tar build-container
+  # The cluster e2e jobs consume the tarball; the node e2e test side-loads the
+  # image archive built here (see test/sideload-image.sh). Nothing is pushed to
+  # a registry.
+  make push-tar build-image-archive
+  gsutil cp "${ROOT_PATH}/${IMAGE_ARCHIVE}" "${UPLOAD_PATH}/"
 
   # Create the env file with and without custom flags at the same time.
   build-npd-custom-flags
diff --git a/test/sideload-image.sh b/test/sideload-image.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..707fee701
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/sideload-image.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Copyright 2026 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# Side-loads the node-problem-detector image built by this PR/CI run onto a
+# node e2e VM so the kubernetes "NodeProblemDetector" test exercises that image
+# instead of pulling one from a registry.
+#
+# It is wired in as the instance startup-script by the ci-/pull-npd-e2e-node
+# jobs, and reads the archive URL (uploaded by test/build.sh) from instance
+# metadata. With --prepull-images=false and the pod's IfNotPresent policy, the
+# imported image is used without any registry pull. No-op when the metadata is
+# absent, so the job is safe to enable before build.sh starts publishing it.
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+
+readonly META="http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/attributes"
+
+url="$(curl -sf -H 'Metadata-Flavor: Google' "${META}/npd-image-url" || true)"
+if [[ -z "${url}" ]]; then
+  echo "npd-image-url instance metadata not set; nothing to side-load"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+echo "Downloading node-problem-detector image archive from ${url}"
+curl -fsSL --retry 5 --retry-delay 3 -o /tmp/npd-image.tar "${url}"
+
+# init.yaml restarts containerd near the end of node setup; wait for it before
+# importing into the CRI (k8s.io) namespace that the kubelet uses.
+for _ in $(seq 1 90); do
+  if ctr -n k8s.io version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    break
+  fi
+  sleep 2
+done
+
+echo "Importing node-problem-detector image into containerd"
+ctr -n k8s.io images import /tmp/npd-image.tar
+ctr -n k8s.io images ls | grep node-problem-detector || true