diff --git a/changelog/fragments/1778052475-fix-k8s-processor.yaml b/changelog/fragments/1778052475-fix-k8s-processor.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..a72290272c15
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/fragments/1778052475-fix-k8s-processor.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# REQUIRED
+# Kind can be one of:
+# - breaking-change: a change to previously-documented behavior
+# - deprecation: functionality that is being removed in a later release
+# - bug-fix: fixes a problem in a previous version
+# - enhancement: extends functionality but does not break or fix existing behavior
+# - feature: new functionality
+# - known-issue: problems that we are aware of in a given version
+# - security: impacts on the security of a product or a user’s deployment.
+# - upgrade: important information for someone upgrading from a prior version
+# - other: does not fit into any of the other categories
+kind: enhancement
+
+# REQUIRED for all kinds
+# Change summary; a 80ish characters long description of the change.
+summary:  Introduce `wait_for_processor_ready` and `wait_for_processor_ready_timeout` settings to `add_kubernetes_metadata` processor to allow waiting for Kubernetes API availability before processing events. 
+
+# REQUIRED for breaking-change, deprecation, known-issue
+# Long description; in case the summary is not enough to describe the change
+# this field accommodate a description without length limits.
+# description:
+
+# REQUIRED for breaking-change, deprecation, known-issue
+# impact:
+
+# REQUIRED for breaking-change, deprecation, known-issue
+# action:
+
+# REQUIRED for all kinds
+# Affected component; usually one of "elastic-agent", "fleet-server", "filebeat", "metricbeat", "auditbeat", "all", etc.
+component: all
+
+# AUTOMATED
+# OPTIONAL to manually add other PR URLs
+# PR URL: A link the PR that added the changeset.
+# If not present is automatically filled by the tooling finding the PR where this changelog fragment has been added.
+# NOTE: the tooling supports backports, so it's able to fill the original PR number instead of the backport PR number.
+# Please provide it if you are adding a fragment for a different PR.
+# pr: https://github.com/owner/repo/1234
+
+# AUTOMATED
+# OPTIONAL to manually add other issue URLs
+# Issue URL; optional; the GitHub issue related to this changeset (either closes or is part of).
+# If not present is automatically filled by the tooling with the issue linked to the PR number.
+# issue: https://github.com/owner/repo/1234
diff --git a/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/config.go b/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/config.go
index aaf219f8642b..d6ac35396b19 100644
--- a/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/config.go
+++ b/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/config.go
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ type kubeAnnotatorConfig struct {
 	DefaultIndexers Enabled       `config:"default_indexers"`
 
 	AddResourceMetadata *metadata.AddResourceMetadataConfig `config:"add_resource_metadata"`
+	WaitReady           bool                                `config:"wait_for_processor_ready"`
+	WaitReadyTimeout    time.Duration                       `config:"wait_for_processor_ready_timeout"`
 }
 
 type Enabled struct {
@@ -58,6 +60,7 @@ func (k *kubeAnnotatorConfig) InitDefaults() {
 	k.DefaultIndexers = Enabled{true}
 	k.Scope = "node"
 	k.AddResourceMetadata = metadata.GetDefaultResourceMetadataConfig()
+	k.WaitReadyTimeout = 30 * time.Second
 }
 
 func (k *kubeAnnotatorConfig) Validate() error {
@@ -69,6 +72,9 @@ func (k *kubeAnnotatorConfig) Validate() error {
 		k.Node = ""
 	}
 
+	if k.WaitReady && k.WaitReadyTimeout <= 0 {
+		return fmt.Errorf("wait_for_processor_ready_timeout must be a positive duration")
+	}
 	// Checks below were added to warn the users early on and avoid initialising the processor in case the `logs_path`
 	// matcher config is not valid: supported paths defined as a `logs_path` configuration setting are strictly defined
 	// if `resource_type` is set
diff --git a/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/config_test.go b/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/config_test.go
index 68054979d093..9a733e9756ec 100644
--- a/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/config_test.go
+++ b/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/config_test.go
@@ -46,6 +46,27 @@ func TestConfigValidate(t *testing.T) {
 			cfg:   map[string]interface{}{},
 			error: false,
 		},
+		{
+			cfg: map[string]interface{}{
+				"wait_for_processor_ready_timeout": "invalid_duration",
+				"wait_for_processor_ready":         true,
+			},
+			error: true,
+		},
+		{
+			cfg: map[string]interface{}{
+				"wait_for_processor_ready_timeout": "20s",
+				"wait_for_processor_ready":         true,
+			},
+			error: false,
+		},
+		{
+			cfg: map[string]interface{}{
+				"wait_for_processor_ready_timeout": "0s",
+				"wait_for_processor_ready":         true,
+			},
+			error: true,
+		},
 	}
 
 	for _, test := range tests {
diff --git a/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/docs/add_kubernetes_metadata.asciidoc b/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/docs/add_kubernetes_metadata.asciidoc
index df795135803a..4be8d1ca5107 100644
--- a/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/docs/add_kubernetes_metadata.asciidoc
+++ b/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/docs/add_kubernetes_metadata.asciidoc
@@ -133,6 +133,10 @@ It is unset by default.
  The enrichment of `node` or `namespace` metadata can be individually disabled by setting `enabled: false`.
  - `deployment`: If resource is `pod` and it is created from a `deployment`, by default the deployment name is added, this can be disabled by setting `deployment: false`.
  - `cronjob`: If resource is `pod` and it is created from a `cronjob`, by default the cronjob name is added, this can be disabled by setting `cronjob: false`.
+`wait_for_processor_ready` :: (false) This specifies if startup should wait for processor initialization. If Kubernetes cannot be reached within `wait_for_processor_ready_timeout`, the processor is marked unavailable. 
+If `false`, initialization runs asynchronously and some early events could be processed without Kubernetes metadata enrichment.
+`wait_for_processor_ready_timeout` :: (10s) Maximum time to wait for Kubernetes connectivity when `wait_for_processor_ready` is enabled.
+
 +
 Example:
 ["source","yaml",subs="attributes"]
diff --git a/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/kubernetes.go b/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/kubernetes.go
index 5fef49f2d184..d8d43db271e9 100644
--- a/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/kubernetes.go
+++ b/libbeat/processors/add_kubernetes_metadata/kubernetes.go
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ type kubernetesAnnotator struct {
 	cache               *cache
 	kubernetesAvailable bool
 	initOnce            sync.Once
+	wg                  sync.WaitGroup
 }
 
 func init() {
@@ -71,29 +72,43 @@ func init() {
 	Indexing.AddMatcher(FieldFormatMatcherName, NewFieldFormatMatcher)
 }
 
-func isKubernetesAvailable(client k8sclient.Interface) (bool, error) {
+func isKubernetesAvailable(client k8sclient.Interface, logger *logp.Logger) (bool, error) {
 	server, err := client.Discovery().ServerVersion()
 	if err != nil {
 		return false, err
 	}
-	logp.Info("%v: kubernetes env detected, with version: %v", "add_kubernetes_metadata", server)
+	logger.Infof("add_kubernetes_metadata: kubernetes env detected, with version: %v", server)
 	return true, nil
 }
 
-func isKubernetesAvailableWithRetry(client k8sclient.Interface) bool {
-	connectionAttempts := 1
+func isKubernetesAvailableWithTimeout(client k8sclient.Interface,
+	waitReady bool,
+	waitReadyTimeout time.Duration,
+	logger *logp.Logger,
+) bool {
+	var timer *time.Timer
+	var err error
+	var kubernetesAvailable bool
+	if waitReady {
+		timer = time.NewTimer(waitReadyTimeout)
+	} else {
+		// hard coding a 5 minutes timeout in case the function is called without waiting for metadata, to avoid infinite loops
+		timer = time.NewTimer(5 * time.Minute)
+	}
+
 	for {
-		kubernetesAvailable, err := isKubernetesAvailable(client)
-		if kubernetesAvailable {
-			return true
-		}
-		if connectionAttempts > checkNodeReadyAttempts {
-			logp.Info("%v: could not detect kubernetes env: %v", "add_kubernetes_metadata", err)
+		select {
+		case <-timer.C:
+			logger.Infof("add_kubernetes_metadata: could not detect kubernetes env: %v", err)
 			return false
+		default:
+			kubernetesAvailable, err = isKubernetesAvailable(client, logger)
+			if kubernetesAvailable {
+				return true
+			}
 		}
-		time.Sleep(3 * time.Second)
-		connectionAttempts += 1
 	}
+
 }
 
 // kubernetesMetadataExist checks whether an event is already enriched with kubernetes metadata
@@ -112,15 +127,26 @@ func New(cfg *config.C, log *logp.Logger) (beat.Processor, error) {
 	}
 
 	log = log.Named(selector).With("libbeat.processor", "add_kubernetes_metadata")
+
 	processor := &kubernetesAnnotator{
-		log:                 log,
-		cache:               newCache(config.CleanupTimeout),
-		kubernetesAvailable: false,
+		log:   log,
+		cache: newCache(config.CleanupTimeout),
+		wg:    sync.WaitGroup{},
 	}
 
-	// complete processor's initialisation asynchronously to re-try on failing k8s client initialisations in case
-	// the k8s node is not yet ready.
-	go processor.init(config, cfg)
+	if config.WaitReady {
+		processor.init(config, cfg)
+		if !processor.kubernetesAvailable {
+			log.Info("Kubernetes environment is not available after waiting for metadata")
+			return processor, nil
+		}
+	} else {
+		// complete processor's initialisation asynchronously to re-try on failing k8s client initialisations in case
+		// the k8s node is not yet ready.
+		go func() {
+			processor.init(config, cfg)
+		}()
+	}
 
 	return processor, nil
 }
@@ -170,7 +196,7 @@ func (k *kubernetesAnnotator) init(config kubeAnnotatorConfig, cfg *config.C) {
 			return
 		}
 
-		if !isKubernetesAvailableWithRetry(client) {
+		if !isKubernetesAvailableWithTimeout(client, config.WaitReady, config.WaitReadyTimeout, k.log) {
 			return
 		}
 
@@ -333,10 +359,11 @@ func (k *kubernetesAnnotator) init(config kubeAnnotatorConfig, cfg *config.C) {
 // contains a map with various Kubernetes metadata.
 // This processor does not access or modify the `Meta` of the event.
 func (k *kubernetesAnnotator) Run(event *beat.Event) (*beat.Event, error) {
-	if !k.kubernetesAvailable {
+	if kubernetesMetadataExist(event) {
 		return event, nil
 	}
-	if kubernetesMetadataExist(event) {
+
+	if !k.kubernetesAvailable {
 		return event, nil
 	}