diff --git a/pkg/kudoctl/packages/writer/writer_tar.go b/pkg/kudoctl/packages/writer/writer_tar.go
index 46c1b1509..26fef76e2 100644
--- a/pkg/kudoctl/packages/writer/writer_tar.go
+++ b/pkg/kudoctl/packages/writer/writer_tar.go
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import (
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 	"strings"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/kudobuilder/kudo/pkg/kudoctl/files"
 	"github.com/kudobuilder/kudo/pkg/kudoctl/packages"
@@ -74,6 +75,13 @@ func TgzDir(fs afero.Fs, path string, w io.Writer) (err error) {
 		// update the name to correctly reflect the desired destination when untaring
 		header.Name = strings.TrimPrefix(strings.Replace(file, path, "", -1), string(filepath.Separator))
 
+		// change certain header metadata to make the build reproducible
+		header.ModTime = time.Time{}
+		header.Uid = 0
+		header.Gid = 0
+		header.Uname = "root"
+		header.Gname = "root"
+
 		// tar_zcvf the header
 		if err := tw.WriteHeader(header); err != nil {
 			return err
diff --git a/pkg/kudoctl/packages/writer/writer_test.go b/pkg/kudoctl/packages/writer/writer_test.go
index 7feb5ac0d..59aa817b4 100644
--- a/pkg/kudoctl/packages/writer/writer_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kudoctl/packages/writer/writer_test.go
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ import (
 	"github.com/spf13/afero"
 )
 
+const expectedTarballSHA = "ad0b1650b6f50979815acedae884851527b4e721696a7cc1d37fef3970888b19"
+
 func TestRegularFileTarball(t *testing.T) {
 	var fs = afero.NewMemMapFs()
 	files.CopyOperatorToFs(fs, "../testdata/zk", "/opt")
@@ -31,6 +33,18 @@ func TestRegularFileTarball(t *testing.T) {
 	f, _ = fs.Open("/opt/zk.tgz")
 	defer f.Close()
 
+	actualTarballSHA, err := files.Sha256Sum(f)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
+	if expectedTarballSHA != actualTarballSHA {
+		t.Errorf("Expecting the tarball to have a specific (reproducible) hash but it differs: %v, %v", expectedTarballSHA, actualTarballSHA)
+	}
+	if _, err := f.Seek(0, io.SeekStart); err != nil {
+		t.Fatal(err)
+	}
+
 	if err := untar(fs, "/opt/untar", f); err != nil {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}