diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 081eb5fba..66a8103d0 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -102,3 +102,5 @@ e2e/tls
 *.pot
 
 mocks
+
+ui/.npm/
diff --git a/ui/.dockerignore b/ui/.dockerignore
index a53cb76a3..2bc7915f1 100644
--- a/ui/.dockerignore
+++ b/ui/.dockerignore
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 .git
 __pycache__
 
+.npm/
+
 app/node_modules
 operator_ui/static/build/*.hot-update.js
 operator_ui/static/build/*.hot-update.json
diff --git a/ui/Dockerfile b/ui/Dockerfile
index 25a0f089d..51f1d7744 100644
--- a/ui/Dockerfile
+++ b/ui/Dockerfile
@@ -1,4 +1,15 @@
-FROM registry.opensource.zalan.do/library/python-3.11-slim:latest
+ARG BASE_IMAGE=registry.opensource.zalan.do/library/python-3.11-slim:latest
+ARG NODE_IMAGE=node:lts-alpine
+
+FROM $NODE_IMAGE AS build
+
+COPY . /workdir
+WORKDIR /workdir/app
+
+RUN npm install \
+    && npm run build
+
+FROM $BASE_IMAGE
 LABEL maintainer="Team ACID @ Zalando <team-acid@zalando.de>"
 
 EXPOSE 8081
@@ -15,6 +26,7 @@ COPY start_server.sh .
 RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
 
 COPY operator_ui operator_ui/
+COPY --from=build /workdir/operator_ui/static/build/ operator_ui/static/build/
 
 ARG VERSION=dev
 RUN sed -i "s/__version__ = .*/__version__ = '${VERSION}'/" operator_ui/__init__.py
diff --git a/ui/Makefile b/ui/Makefile
index 7d86b2df6..8f88982ab 100644
--- a/ui/Makefile
+++ b/ui/Makefile
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@ test:
 	tox
 
 appjs:
-	docker run $(TTYFLAGS) -u $$(id -u) -v $$(pwd):/workdir -w /workdir/app node:14.21.2-alpine npm install
-	docker run $(TTYFLAGS) -u $$(id -u) -v $$(pwd):/workdir -w /workdir/app node:14.21.2-alpine npm run build
+	docker run $(TTYFLAGS) -u $$(id -u) -v $$(pwd):/workdir -w /workdir/app node:lts-alpine npm install --cache /workdir/.npm
+	docker run $(TTYFLAGS) -u $$(id -u) -v $$(pwd):/workdir -w /workdir/app node:lts-alpine npm run build --cache /workdir/.npm
 
 docker: appjs
 	echo `(env)`