diff --git a/.github/workflows/hpc-load-balancer.yml b/.github/workflows/hpc-load-balancer.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..90ace9b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/hpc-load-balancer.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+name: hpc-load-balancer
+
+on:
+  push:
+  pull_request:
+    branches:
+      - 'main'
+
+
+jobs:
+
+  build-and-setup:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    container: ubuntu:latest
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@v3
+
+      - name: Dependencies
+        run: |
+          apt update -qq && DEBIAN_FRONTEND="noninteractive" apt install -yq g++ make wget curl tar
+
+      - name: Build load balancer binary
+        run: |
+          cd hpc && make build-load-balancer
+
+      - name: Download and setup hq binary
+        run: |
+          url=$(curl -sSL https://api.github.com/repos/It4innovations/hyperqueue/releases/latest | \
+                grep -o "\"browser_download_url\": \"https://[^\"]*-linux-x64.tar.gz\"" | \
+                cut -d '"' -f 4)
+          if [ -z "$url" ]; then
+              echo "Error: URL not found"
+              exit 1
+          fi
+
+          filename="hq-linux-x64.tar.gz"
+          wget -q $url -O $filename
+          tar xzf $filename
+          ./hq --version
+
diff --git a/hpc/LoadBalancer.cpp b/hpc/LoadBalancer.cpp
index c23bdff..b839583 100644
--- a/hpc/LoadBalancer.cpp
+++ b/hpc/LoadBalancer.cpp
@@ -25,15 +25,19 @@ void clear_url(std::string directory) {
 }
 
 void launch_hq_with_alloc_queue() {
-    std::system("hq server stop &> /dev/null");
+    std::system("./hq server stop &> /dev/null");
 
-    std::system("hq server start &");
+    std::system("./hq server start &");
     sleep(1); // Workaround: give the HQ server enough time to start.
 
     // Create HQ allocation queue
     std::system("hq_scripts/allocation_queue.sh");
 }
 
+bool file_exists(const std::string& path) {
+    return std::filesystem::exists(path);
+}
+
 const std::vector<std::string> get_model_names() {
     // Don't start a client, always use the default job submission script.
     HyperQueueJob hq_job("", false, true); 
@@ -49,6 +53,13 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
     create_directory_if_not_existing("sub-jobs");
     clear_url("urls");
 
+    // Check if the hq binary exists
+    std::string hq_binary_path = "./hq"; 
+    if (!file_exists(hq_binary_path)) {
+        std::cerr << "Error: hq binary does not exist at " << hq_binary_path << std::endl;
+        return 1; 
+    }
+
     launch_hq_with_alloc_queue();
 
     // Read environment variables for configuration
diff --git a/hpc/LoadBalancer.hpp b/hpc/LoadBalancer.hpp
index 20d877d..8a4e433 100644
--- a/hpc/LoadBalancer.hpp
+++ b/hpc/LoadBalancer.hpp
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ class HyperQueueJob
     ~HyperQueueJob()
     {
         // Cancel the SLURM job
-        std::system(("hq job cancel " + job_id).c_str());
+        std::system(("./hq job cancel " + job_id).c_str());
 
         // Delete the url text file
         std::system(("rm ./urls/url-" + job_id + ".txt").c_str());
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ class HyperQueueJob
         const std::filesystem::path submission_script_generic("job.sh");
         const std::filesystem::path submission_script_model_specific("job_" + model_name + ".sh");
 
-        std::string hq_command = "hq submit --output-mode=quiet ";
+        std::string hq_command = "./hq submit --output-mode=quiet ";
         hq_command += "--priority=" + std::to_string(job_count) + " ";
         if (std::filesystem::exists(submission_script_dir / submission_script_model_specific) && !force_default_submission_script)
         {
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ class HyperQueueJob
     // state = ["WAITING", "RUNNING", "FINISHED", "CANCELED"]
     bool waitForHQJobState(const std::string &job_id, const std::string &state)
     {
-        const std::string command = "hq job info " + job_id + " | grep State | awk '{print $4}'";
+        const std::string command = "./hq job info " + job_id + " | grep State | awk '{print $4}'";
         // std::cout << "Checking runtime: " << command << std::endl;
         std::string job_status;
 
diff --git a/hpc/hq_scripts/allocation_queue.sh b/hpc/hq_scripts/allocation_queue.sh
index ae13b8d..35e4783 100755
--- a/hpc/hq_scripts/allocation_queue.sh
+++ b/hpc/hq_scripts/allocation_queue.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,14 @@
 #! /bin/bash
 
 # Note: For runs on systems without SLURM, replace the slurm allocator by
-# hq worker start &
+# ./hq worker start &
 
+if [[ ! -f "./hq" ]]; then
+  echo "Error: hq binary does not exist at ./hq"
+  exit 1
+fi
 
-hq alloc add slurm --time-limit 10m \
+./hq alloc add slurm --time-limit 10m \
                    --idle-timeout 3m \
                    --backlog 1 \
                    --workers-per-alloc 1 \