diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/hadoop/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/hadoop/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
index 2268715fc..d1adf27c1 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/hadoop/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/elasticsearch/hadoop/gradle/BuildPlugin.groovy
@@ -729,10 +729,13 @@ class BuildPlugin implements Plugin<Project>  {
     }
 
     private static void updateVariantPomLocationAndArtifactId(Project project, MavenPublication publication, SparkVariant variant) {
+        // Add variant classifier to the pom file name if required
+        String classifier = variant.shouldClassifySparkVersion() && variant.isDefaultVariant() == false ? "-${variant.getName()}" : ''
+        String filename = "${project.archivesBaseName}_${variant.scalaMajorVersion}-${project.getVersion()}${classifier}"
         // Fix the pom name
         project.tasks.withType(GenerateMavenPom).all { GenerateMavenPom pom ->
             if (pom.name == "generatePomFileFor${publication.name.capitalize()}Publication") {
-                pom.destination = project.provider({"${project.buildDir}/distributions/${project.archivesBaseName}_${variant.scalaMajorVersion}-${project.getVersion()}.pom"})
+                pom.destination = project.provider({"${project.buildDir}/distributions/${filename}.pom"})
             }
         }
         // Fix the artifactId. Note: The publishing task does not like this happening. Hence it is disabled.
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/hadoop/gradle/scala/SparkVariantPlugin.java b/buildSrc/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/hadoop/gradle/scala/SparkVariantPlugin.java
index e95375e4c..cb83ad06e 100644
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/hadoop/gradle/scala/SparkVariantPlugin.java
+++ b/buildSrc/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/hadoop/gradle/scala/SparkVariantPlugin.java
@@ -81,19 +81,21 @@ public static class SparkVariant {
         private final String scalaVersion;
         private final String scalaMajorVersion;
         private final String capability;
+        private final boolean classifySparkVersion;
 
         public SparkVariant(String name) {
             throw new GradleException("Cannot create variant named [" + name + "]. Do not instantiate objects directly. " +
                     "You must configure this via the SparkVariantPluginExtension.");
         }
 
-        public SparkVariant(CharSequence name, boolean isDefaultVariant, String sparkVersion, String scalaVersion, String capability) {
+        public SparkVariant(CharSequence name, boolean isDefaultVariant, String sparkVersion, String scalaVersion, String capability, boolean classifySparkVersion) {
             this.name = name;
             this.isDefaultVariant = isDefaultVariant;
             this.sparkVersion = sparkVersion;
             this.scalaVersion = scalaVersion;
             this.scalaMajorVersion = scalaVersion.substring(0, scalaVersion.lastIndexOf('.'));
             this.capability = capability;
+            this.classifySparkVersion = classifySparkVersion;
         }
 
         public String getName() {
@@ -124,6 +126,10 @@ public String getCapability() {
             return capability;
         }
 
+        public boolean shouldClassifySparkVersion() {
+            return classifySparkVersion;
+        }
+
         public String getSourceSetName(String sourceSetName) {
             String result;
             if (isDefaultVariant) {
@@ -184,22 +190,38 @@ public void capabilityGroup(String capability) {
         }
 
         public SparkVariant setDefaultVariant(String variantName, String sparkVersion, String scalaVersion) {
+            return setDefaultVariant(variantName, sparkVersion, scalaVersion, false);
+        }
+
+        public SparkVariant setCoreDefaultVariant(String variantName, String sparkVersion, String scalaVersion) {
+            return setDefaultVariant(variantName, sparkVersion, scalaVersion, true);
+        }
+
+        public SparkVariant setDefaultVariant(String variantName, String sparkVersion, String scalaVersion, boolean classifySparkVersion) {
             if (defaultVariant != null) {
                 throw new GradleException("Cannot set default variant multiple times");
             }
             if (capability == null) {
                 throw new GradleException("Must set capability group before adding variant definitions");
             }
-            defaultVariant = new SparkVariant(variantName, true, sparkVersion, scalaVersion, capability);
+            defaultVariant = new SparkVariant(variantName, true, sparkVersion, scalaVersion, capability, classifySparkVersion);
             variants.add(defaultVariant);
             return defaultVariant;
         }
 
         public SparkVariant addFeatureVariant(String variantName, String sparkVersion, String scalaVersion) {
+            return addFeatureVariant(variantName, sparkVersion, scalaVersion, false);
+        }
+
+        public SparkVariant addCoreFeatureVariant(String variantName, String sparkVersion, String scalaVersion) {
+            return addFeatureVariant(variantName, sparkVersion, scalaVersion, true);
+        }
+
+        public SparkVariant addFeatureVariant(String variantName, String sparkVersion, String scalaVersion, boolean classifySparkVersion) {
             if (capability == null) {
                 throw new GradleException("Must set capability group before adding variant definitions");
             }
-            SparkVariant variant = new SparkVariant(variantName, false, sparkVersion, scalaVersion, capability);
+            SparkVariant variant = new SparkVariant(variantName, false, sparkVersion, scalaVersion, capability, classifySparkVersion);
             variants.add(variant);
             return variant;
         }
@@ -437,7 +459,8 @@ private static void registerVariantScaladoc(Project project, TaskContainer tasks
         });
     }
 
-    private static void correctScalaJarClassifiers(Jar jar, SparkVariant sparkVariant) {
+    private static void removeVariantNameFromClassifier(Jar jar, SparkVariant sparkVariant) {
+        // the default variant doesn't have classifiers on it to remove
         if (sparkVariant.isDefaultVariant() == false) {
             String classifier = jar.getArchiveClassifier().get();
             classifier = classifier.replace(sparkVariant.name, "");
@@ -446,6 +469,12 @@ private static void correctScalaJarClassifiers(Jar jar, SparkVariant sparkVarian
             }
             jar.getArchiveClassifier().set(classifier);
         }
+    }
+
+    private static void correctScalaJarClassifiers(Jar jar, SparkVariant sparkVariant) {
+        if (sparkVariant.shouldClassifySparkVersion() == false) {
+            removeVariantNameFromClassifier(jar, sparkVariant);
+        }
         String baseName = jar.getArchiveBaseName().get();
         baseName = baseName + "_" + sparkVariant.scalaMajorVersion;
         jar.getArchiveBaseName().set(baseName);
@@ -453,8 +482,8 @@ private static void correctScalaJarClassifiers(Jar jar, SparkVariant sparkVarian
 
     private static void configureScalaJarClassifiers(Project project, final SparkVariant sparkVariant) {
         TaskCollection<Jar> jars = project.getTasks().withType(Jar.class);
-        correctScalaJarClassifiers(jars.getByName(sparkVariant.taskName("jar")), sparkVariant);
-        correctScalaJarClassifiers(jars.getByName(sparkVariant.taskName("javadocJar")), sparkVariant);
-        correctScalaJarClassifiers(jars.getByName(sparkVariant.taskName("sourcesJar")), sparkVariant);
+        jars.named(sparkVariant.taskName("jar"), (Jar jar) -> correctScalaJarClassifiers(jar, sparkVariant));
+        jars.named(sparkVariant.taskName("javadocJar"), (Jar jar) -> correctScalaJarClassifiers(jar, sparkVariant));
+        jars.named(sparkVariant.taskName("sourcesJar"), (Jar jar) -> correctScalaJarClassifiers(jar, sparkVariant));
     }
 }
diff --git a/spark/core/build.gradle b/spark/core/build.gradle
index 24799c45a..361af40d1 100644
--- a/spark/core/build.gradle
+++ b/spark/core/build.gradle
@@ -9,10 +9,10 @@ apply plugin: 'spark.variants'
 
 sparkVariants {
     capabilityGroup 'org.elasticsearch.spark.variant'
-    setDefaultVariant "spark20scala211", spark24Version, scala211Version
-    addFeatureVariant "spark20scala210", spark22Version, scala210Version
-    addFeatureVariant "spark13scala211", spark13Version, scala211Version
-    addFeatureVariant "spark13scala210", spark13Version, scala210Version
+    setCoreDefaultVariant "spark20scala211", spark24Version, scala211Version
+    addCoreFeatureVariant "spark20scala210", spark22Version, scala210Version
+    addCoreFeatureVariant "spark13scala211", spark13Version, scala211Version
+    addCoreFeatureVariant "spark13scala210", spark13Version, scala210Version
 
     all { SparkVariantPlugin.SparkVariant variant ->