diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..615ae64a7b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+name: E2E tests
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - main
+      - develop
+  pull_request:
+
+jobs:
+  build:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    env:
+      E2E_TESTS: true
+      E2E_LOGS: true
+      CI_VERBOSE: true
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - name: Install Go
+        uses: actions/setup-go@v2
+        with:
+          go-version: 1.17
+      - name: Run tests
+        run: make test-e2e
+      # - name: Archive test logs
+      #   if: always()
+      #   uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
+      #   with:
+      #     name: e2e-logs
+      #     path: e2e-logs-*/
diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
index b34eb43aad..8fb040c237 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -33,17 +33,8 @@ jobs:
         with:
           submodules: recursive
 
-      # We need to build the binary with the race flag enabled
-      # because it will get picked up and run during e2e tests
-      # and the e2e tests should error out if any kind of race is found
-      - name: Go build with race
-        run: CGO_ENABLED=1 GOOS=linux go build -race -a -o artifacts/polygon-edge .
-
-      - name: Add artifacts directory to the path
-        run: echo "$(pwd)/artifacts" >> $GITHUB_PATH
-
       - name: Go test
-        run: go test -coverprofile coverage.out -timeout 28m ./...
+        run: go test -coverprofile coverage.out -timeout 20m `go list ./... | grep -v e2e`
 
       - name: Upload coverage file to Codecov
         uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 1e8d6a9c9d..263e0aa0d1 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -39,9 +39,15 @@ generate-bsd-licenses:
 
 .PHONY: test
 test:
-	go build -o artifacts/polygon-edge .
-	$(eval export PATH=$(shell pwd)/artifacts:$(PATH))
-	go test -timeout 28m ./...
+	go test -timeout=20m `go list ./... | grep -v e2e`
+
+.PHONY: test-e2e
+test-e2e:
+    # We need to build the binary with the race flag enabled
+    # because it will get picked up and run during e2e tests
+    # and the e2e tests should error out if any kind of race is found
+	go build -race -o artifacts/polygon-edge .
+	env EDGE_BINARY=${PWD}/artifacts/polygon-edge go test -v -timeout=30m ./e2e/...
 
 .PHONY: run-local
 run-local:
diff --git a/e2e/README.md b/e2e/README.md
index 1aae6a0295..1bb1eb5e9c 100644
--- a/e2e/README.md
+++ b/e2e/README.md
@@ -2,35 +2,16 @@
 
 The implemented E2E tests start a local instance of polygon-edge.
 
-As such, they require the binary 'polygon-edge' to be available in the $PATH variable.<br />
-Typically, the actual directory added to the $PATH variable would be the `go/bin` folder.
+## Step 1: Run the tests
 
-## Step 1: Build the polygon-edge
-
-```bash
-go build -o $HOME/go/bin/polygon-edge ./main.go
-```
-
-## Step 2: Run the tests
-
-Now that the polygon-edge binary is in the `go/bin` folder, the e2e test server is able to locate it when running tests.
+Use the make file to launch the tests `make test-e2e`
 
 ## Manual checks if things are acting funny
 
 ### Check if the polygon-edge process is running
 
 If you've stopped the tests abruptly, chances are the polygon-edge process is still running on your machine. <br/ >
-In order for the tests to function normally, please kill the process.
-
-### Check if the polygon-edge-* folders are present in /tmp/
-
-While running, the e2e server stores data needed for running in the /tmp/polygon-edge* folders. <br />
-To clean up these folders, simply run:
-
-````bash
-cd /tmp/
-rm -rf polygon-edge-*
-````
+In order for the tests to function normally, please kill the possible remaining processes using `killall polygon-edge`
 
 ### Clean the golang test cache
 
diff --git a/e2e/framework/testserver.go b/e2e/framework/testserver.go
index a290071a09..611e687b7f 100644
--- a/e2e/framework/testserver.go
+++ b/e2e/framework/testserver.go
@@ -192,7 +192,7 @@ func (t *TestServer) SecretsInit() (*InitIBFTResult, error) {
 	args = append(args, commandSlice...)
 	args = append(args, "--data-dir", filepath.Join(t.Config.IBFTDir, "tmp"))
 
-	cmd := exec.Command(binaryName, args...)
+	cmd := exec.Command(resolveBinary(), args...) //nolint:gosec
 	cmd.Dir = t.Config.RootDir
 
 	if _, err := cmd.Output(); err != nil {
@@ -333,7 +333,7 @@ func (t *TestServer) GenerateGenesis() error {
 	blockGasLimit := strconv.FormatUint(t.Config.BlockGasLimit, 10)
 	args = append(args, "--block-gas-limit", blockGasLimit)
 
-	cmd := exec.Command(binaryName, args...)
+	cmd := exec.Command(resolveBinary(), args...) //nolint:gosec
 	cmd.Dir = t.Config.RootDir
 
 	if t.Config.ShowsLog {
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ func (t *TestServer) Start(ctx context.Context) error {
 	t.ReleaseReservedPorts()
 
 	// Start the server
-	t.cmd = exec.Command(binaryName, args...)
+	t.cmd = exec.Command(resolveBinary(), args...) //nolint:gosec
 	t.cmd.Dir = t.Config.RootDir
 
 	if t.Config.ShowsLog {
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@ func (t *TestServer) SwitchIBFTType(typ fork.IBFTType, from uint64, to, deployme
 	}
 
 	// Start the server
-	t.cmd = exec.Command(binaryName, args...)
+	t.cmd = exec.Command(resolveBinary(), args...) //nolint:gosec
 	t.cmd.Dir = t.Config.RootDir
 
 	if t.Config.ShowsLog {
@@ -712,3 +712,12 @@ func (t *TestServer) CallJSONRPC(req map[string]interface{}) map[string]interfac
 
 	return result
 }
+
+func resolveBinary() string {
+	bin := os.Getenv("EDGE_BINARY")
+	if bin != "" {
+		return bin
+	}
+	// fallback
+	return binaryName
+}
diff --git a/network/server.go b/network/server.go
index 9b53105e94..9d1754261b 100644
--- a/network/server.go
+++ b/network/server.go
@@ -536,7 +536,7 @@ func (s *Server) DisconnectFromPeer(peer peer.ID, reason string) {
 
 var (
 	// Anything below 35s is prone to false timeouts, as seen from empirical test data
-	DefaultJoinTimeout   = 40 * time.Second
+	DefaultJoinTimeout   = 100 * time.Second
 	DefaultBufferTimeout = DefaultJoinTimeout + time.Second*5
 )
 
diff --git a/validators/store/contract/contract_test.go b/validators/store/contract/contract_test.go
index 96e385f12d..b99de8fa14 100644
--- a/validators/store/contract/contract_test.go
+++ b/validators/store/contract/contract_test.go
@@ -450,8 +450,6 @@ func TestContractValidatorStoreGetValidators(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestContractValidatorStore_CacheChange(t *testing.T) {
-	t.Parallel()
-
 	var (
 		cacheSize = 2