diff --git a/distribution/src/main/assembly/assembly.xml b/distribution/src/main/assembly/assembly.xml
index 4099684306..add3c4aeef 100644
--- a/distribution/src/main/assembly/assembly.xml
+++ b/distribution/src/main/assembly/assembly.xml
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@
     <fileSet>
       <directory>../adam-assembly/target</directory>
       <includes>
-        <include>adam_*.jar</include>
+        <include>adam-assembly*.jar</include>
       </includes>
       <outputDirectory>repo</outputDirectory>
       <directoryMode>0755</directoryMode>
diff --git a/scripts/jenkins-test b/scripts/jenkins-test
index a46573d4b2..ef24e7136b 100755
--- a/scripts/jenkins-test
+++ b/scripts/jenkins-test
@@ -133,6 +133,13 @@ mvn -U \
     -Dspark.version=${SPARK_VERSION} \
     -DargLine=${ADAM_MVN_TMP_DIR}
 
+# make sure that the distribution package contains an assembly jar
+# if no assembly jar is found, this will exit with code 1 and fail the build
+tar tzvf distribution/target/adam-distribution*-bin.tar.gz | \
+    grep adam-assembly | \
+    grep jar | \
+    grep -v -e sources -e javadoc 
+
 # we are done with maven, so clean up the maven temp dir
 find ${ADAM_MVN_TMP_DIR}
 rm -rf ${ADAM_MVN_TMP_DIR}