diff --git a/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/defaults/main.yml b/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/defaults/main.yml
index c737334ae..83f4841b8 100644
--- a/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/defaults/main.yml
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
-slurm_exporter_container: "deepops/prometheus-slurm-exporter:latest"
+# Built locally from the bundled Dockerfile by default; set
+# slurm_exporter_build_image: false and point slurm_exporter_container at a
+# site image to use a registry instead.
+slurm_exporter_container: "deepops/prometheus-slurm-exporter:0.20-1"
+slurm_exporter_build_image: true
+slurm_exporter_build_dir: /opt/deepops/build/slurm-exporter
 slurm_exporter_svc_name: "docker.slurm-exporter.service"
 slurm_exporter_state: started
 slurm_exporter_enabled: yes
diff --git a/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/files/docker/Dockerfile b/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/files/docker/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..69caec384
--- /dev/null
+++ b/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/files/docker/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+# Prometheus Slurm exporter image, built locally by the
+# prometheus-slurm-exporter role (no registry pull required).
+#
+# The container bind-mounts the host's Slurm client binaries and libraries,
+# so the runtime stage provides a current glibc plus the system libraries
+# those binaries link that are not part of the Slurm install prefix.
+ARG SLURM_EXPORTER_BASE_IMAGE=ubuntu:24.04
+
+FROM golang:1.24 AS build
+ARG SLURM_EXPORTER_VERSION=0.20
+# The sed below fixes an upstream parsing bug present through vpenso master:
+# the node collector calls sinfo -O without field widths, so node names of
+# 20+ characters truncate into the next column and the exporter panics with
+# "index out of range". The ": " width suffix disables truncation.
+RUN git clone --depth 1 --branch ${SLURM_EXPORTER_VERSION} \
+        https://github.com/vpenso/prometheus-slurm-exporter /src \
+    && cd /src \
+    && sed -i 's/NodeList,AllocMem,Memory,CPUsState,StateLong/NodeList: ,AllocMem: ,Memory: ,CPUsState: ,StateLong: /' node.go \
+    && grep -q 'NodeList: ' node.go \
+    && CGO_ENABLED=0 go build -o /prometheus-slurm-exporter
+
+FROM ${SLURM_EXPORTER_BASE_IMAGE}
+# The slurm system user must resolve inside the container or the mounted
+# Slurm client tools refuse to parse slurm.conf (SlurmUser lookup).
+RUN apt-get update \
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+        libmunge2 \
+        libjson-c5 \
+        libyaml-0-2 \
+        liblz4-1 \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
+    && useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin slurm
+COPY --from=build /prometheus-slurm-exporter /usr/local/bin/prometheus-slurm-exporter
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/prometheus-slurm-exporter"]
diff --git a/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/tasks/main.yml b/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/tasks/main.yml
index 397ea82e8..37b8e0dc3 100644
--- a/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/tasks/main.yml
@@ -43,6 +43,35 @@
     - slurm-dashboard.json
   notify: restart grafana
 
+- name: create image build dir
+  file:
+    path: "{{ slurm_exporter_build_dir }}"
+    state: directory
+    mode: "0755"
+  when: slurm_exporter_build_image
+
+- name: copy image build context
+  copy:
+    src: docker/Dockerfile
+    dest: "{{ slurm_exporter_build_dir }}/Dockerfile"
+    mode: "0644"
+  register: slurm_exporter_dockerfile
+  when: slurm_exporter_build_image
+
+- name: check for existing exporter image
+  command: docker image inspect {{ slurm_exporter_container }}
+  register: slurm_exporter_image_check
+  failed_when: false
+  changed_when: false
+  when: slurm_exporter_build_image
+
+- name: build exporter image
+  command: docker build -t {{ slurm_exporter_container }} {{ slurm_exporter_build_dir }}
+  when: >
+    slurm_exporter_build_image and
+    (slurm_exporter_image_check.rc != 0 or slurm_exporter_dockerfile.changed)
+  notify: restart slurm-exporter
+
 - name: install systemd unit file
   template:
     src: templates/docker.slurm-exporter.service.j2
diff --git a/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/templates/docker.slurm-exporter.service.j2 b/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/templates/docker.slurm-exporter.service.j2
index 31f6cf9fc..7c74e7906 100644
--- a/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/templates/docker.slurm-exporter.service.j2
+++ b/roles/prometheus-slurm-exporter/templates/docker.slurm-exporter.service.j2
@@ -8,8 +8,10 @@ TimeoutStartSec=0
 Restart=always
 ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/docker stop %n
 ExecStartPre=-/usr/bin/docker rm %n
+{% if not slurm_exporter_build_image %}
 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/docker pull {{ slurm_exporter_container }}
-ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker run --rm --network host --name %n -v {{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sdiag:{{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sdiag -v {{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sinfo:{{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sinfo -v {{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/squeue:{{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/squeue -v /etc/slurm:/etc/slurm:ro -v {{ slurm_install_prefix }}/lib/slurm:{{ slurm_install_prefix }}/lib/slurm:ro -v /etc/hosts:/etc/hosts:ro -v /var/run/munge:/var/run/munge:ro {{ slurm_exporter_container }}
+{% endif %}
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker run --rm --network host --name %n -v {{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sdiag:{{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sdiag -v {{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sinfo:{{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sinfo -v {{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/squeue:{{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/squeue -v {{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sshare:{{ slurm_install_prefix }}/bin/sshare -v /etc/slurm:/etc/slurm:ro -v {{ slurm_install_prefix }}/lib:{{ slurm_install_prefix }}/lib:ro -v /etc/hosts:/etc/hosts:ro -v /var/run/munge:/var/run/munge:ro {{ slurm_exporter_container }}
 
 [Install]
 WantedBy=multi-user.target