diff --git a/runners/spark/pom.xml b/runners/spark/pom.xml
index 10fa94699572..6958b2891e81 100644
--- a/runners/spark/pom.xml
+++ b/runners/spark/pom.xml
@@ -72,7 +72,10 @@
                   <goal>test</goal>
                 </goals>
                 <configuration>
-                  <groups>org.apache.beam.sdk.testing.RunnableOnService</groups>
+                  <groups>
+                    org.apache.beam.sdk.testing.RunnableOnService,
+                    org.apache.beam.runners.spark.UsesCheckpointRecovery
+                  </groups>
                   <excludedGroups>
                     org.apache.beam.sdk.testing.UsesStatefulParDo,
                     org.apache.beam.sdk.testing.UsesTimersInParDo,
@@ -349,6 +352,9 @@
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
           <configuration>
+            <excludedGroups>
+              org.apache.beam.runners.spark.UsesCheckpointRecovery
+            </excludedGroups>
             <forkCount>1</forkCount>
             <reuseForks>false</reuseForks>
             <systemPropertyVariables>
diff --git a/runners/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/runners/spark/UsesCheckpointRecovery.java b/runners/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/runners/spark/UsesCheckpointRecovery.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..da63d3e3e8f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/runners/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/runners/spark/UsesCheckpointRecovery.java
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you 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.
+ */
+package org.apache.beam.runners.spark;
+
+/**
+ * Category tag for tests that validate Spark checkpoint recovery.
+ */
+public interface UsesCheckpointRecovery {}
diff --git a/runners/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/runners/spark/translation/streaming/ResumeFromCheckpointStreamingTest.java b/runners/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/runners/spark/translation/streaming/ResumeFromCheckpointStreamingTest.java
index ce502d6bf799..5c1963dc89c3 100644
--- a/runners/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/runners/spark/translation/streaming/ResumeFromCheckpointStreamingTest.java
+++ b/runners/spark/src/test/java/org/apache/beam/runners/spark/translation/streaming/ResumeFromCheckpointStreamingTest.java
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@
 import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.ReuseSparkContextRule;
 import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.SparkPipelineResult;
 import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.TestSparkPipelineOptions;
+import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.UsesCheckpointRecovery;
 import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.aggregators.AggregatorsAccumulator;
 import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.coders.CoderHelpers;
 import org.apache.beam.runners.spark.metrics.MetricsAccumulator;
@@ -82,6 +83,7 @@
 import org.junit.BeforeClass;
 import org.junit.Rule;
 import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.experimental.categories.Category;
 
 
 /**
@@ -140,6 +142,7 @@ public void close() { }
   }
 
   @Test
+  @Category(UsesCheckpointRecovery.class)
   public void testWithResume() throws Exception {
     // write to Kafka
     produce(ImmutableMap.of(