diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index b01f84ee14b..31aaaea83ab 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -184,7 +184,8 @@ deploy_to_sonatype:
   rules:
     - if: '$CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "master"'
       when: on_success
-    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /^v.*/'
+    # Do not deploy release candidate versions
+    - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$/'
       when: on_success
     - when: manual
       allow_failure: true
@@ -205,6 +206,12 @@ deploy_artifacts_to_github:
       when: on_success
     - when: manual
       allow_failure: true
+  # Requires the deploy_to_sonatype job to have run first as build cache is broken
+  # This will deploy the artifacts built from the publishToSonatype task to the GitHub release
+  needs:
+    - job: deploy_to_sonatype
+      # The deploy_to_sonatype job is not run for release candidate versions
+      optional: true
   script:
     - aws ssm get-parameter --region us-east-1 --name ci.dd-trace-java.gh_release_token --with-decryption --query "Parameter.Value" --out text > github-token.txt
     - gh auth login --with-token < github-token.txt
@@ -221,7 +228,7 @@ generate-lib-init-tag-values:
   rules:
     - if: '$POPULATE_CACHE'
       when: never
-    # We don't tag prerelease versions
+    # Do not tag release candidate versions
     - if: '$CI_COMMIT_TAG =~ /^v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$/'
       when: on_success
     - when: manual