diff --git a/components/automate-backend-postgresql/habitat/config/functions.sh b/components/automate-backend-postgresql/habitat/config/functions.sh
index 2a9e2a464a0..cb62c49d3ee 100644
--- a/components/automate-backend-postgresql/habitat/config/functions.sh
+++ b/components/automate-backend-postgresql/habitat/config/functions.sh
@@ -189,6 +189,11 @@ ensure_dir_ownership() {
   pg_log_dir={{pkg.svc_var_path}}/pg_log
   if [ -d "$pg_log_dir" ]; then
     chmod 0644 "$pg_log_dir"
+  else
+    echo "pg_log directory does not exist"
+    mkdir -p "$pg_log_dir"
+    chmod 0644 "$pg_log_dir"
+    ls -l "$pg_log_dir"
   fi
 }