diff --git a/operator/deploy/melange.tmpl.yaml b/operator/deploy/melange.tmpl.yaml
index 5ec8840b9..de09ba9fc 100644
--- a/operator/deploy/melange.tmpl.yaml
+++ b/operator/deploy/melange.tmpl.yaml
@@ -24,6 +24,11 @@ pipeline:
   - runs: |
       set -exuo pipefail
 
+      # remove a 'v' prefix from the version if it exists
+      if [[ ${VERSION:0:1} == "v" ]]; then
+        export VERSION=${VERSION:1}
+      fi
+
       make -C operator build
       cp operator/bin/manager "${{targets.contextdir}}/manager"
   - uses: strip
diff --git a/operator/pkg/charts/charts.go b/operator/pkg/charts/charts.go
index 14ec571dc..b926c3cd5 100644
--- a/operator/pkg/charts/charts.go
+++ b/operator/pkg/charts/charts.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/defaults"
 	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/metrics"
 	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/release"
+	"github.com/replicatedhq/embedded-cluster/pkg/versions"
 	kotsv1beta1 "github.com/replicatedhq/kotskinds/apis/kots/v1beta1"
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 )
@@ -96,8 +97,11 @@ func generateHelmConfigs(ctx context.Context, in *clusterv1beta1.Installation, c
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("unable to get operator images: %w", err)
 	}
+	// set the images, location, and version of the operator chart because the files compiled into the embedded-cluster-operator do not include the correct values
+	// those values depend on the sha256 of the compiled binary itself
 	embeddedclusteroperator.Metadata.Images = oi
 	embeddedclusteroperator.Metadata.Location = operatorLocation
+	embeddedclusteroperator.Metadata.Version = versions.Version
 	embeddedclusteroperator.Render()
 
 	migrationStatus := k8sutil.CheckConditionStatus(in.Status, registry.RegistryMigrationStatusConditionType)
diff --git a/operator/pkg/charts/charts_test.go b/operator/pkg/charts/charts_test.go
index 87973746d..28bd6a037 100644
--- a/operator/pkg/charts/charts_test.go
+++ b/operator/pkg/charts/charts_test.go
@@ -457,7 +457,7 @@ func test_replaceAddonMeta() {
 	embeddedclusteroperator.Metadata = release.AddonMetadata{
 		Location: "oci://proxy.replicated.com/anonymous/registry.replicated.com/library/embedded-cluster-operator",
 	}
-	versions.Version = "1.2.3-operator" // This is not great, the operator addon uses this to determine what version to deploy
+	versions.Version = "1.2.3-operator" // This is not great, we use this to override the version of the operator chart
 	// we can't use the version from the metadata because it won't be set in the operator binary
 	// TODO fix this
 
diff --git a/pkg/addons/embeddedclusteroperator/embeddedclusteroperator.go b/pkg/addons/embeddedclusteroperator/embeddedclusteroperator.go
index 5157426e4..edcb6eab7 100644
--- a/pkg/addons/embeddedclusteroperator/embeddedclusteroperator.go
+++ b/pkg/addons/embeddedclusteroperator/embeddedclusteroperator.go
@@ -61,7 +61,6 @@ func Render() {
 	helmValues["kotsVersion"] = adminconsole.Metadata.Version
 	helmValues["embeddedClusterVersion"] = versions.Version
 	helmValues["embeddedClusterK0sVersion"] = versions.K0sVersion
-	Metadata.Version = versions.Version
 }
 
 // EmbeddedClusterOperator manages the installation of the embedded cluster operator