diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index ea4ad5ee175d15a52ab8fb184016bd4b643932af..00a3cf92ad2733d9a2b944ed73d1681407600429 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -44,6 +44,24 @@ deploy_dev:
     - dev@hpc-team/strudel2_backend
   tags: 
     - deploy_dev
+  variables:
+    DOCKER_HOST: unix:///var/run/docker.sock
+  script:
+    - echo "deploying dev"
+    - docker login -u $DOCKERHUBUSER -p $DOCKERHUBPASSWORD docker.io
+    - docker stop strudel2_backend || echo "Failed to stop existing container"
+    - docker ps -a -q | xargs -I{} docker rm  {} || echo "No containers to remove"
+    - docker images -q | xargs -I{} docker rmi {} || echo "No images to remove"
+    - docker pull l1ll1/strudel2_backend:latest
+    - docker run -d -p 8080:8080 -p 8090:8090 --name strudel2_backend l1ll1/strudel2_backend:latest || echo "Unable to start image ... possibly the old wsgi process is still running?"
+  dependencies:
+    - build
+    
+deploy_dev_pawsey:
+  stage: deploy
+  only:
+    - dev@hpc-team/strudel2_backend
+  tags: 
     - deploy_dev_pawsey
   variables:
     DOCKER_HOST: unix:///var/run/docker.sock