diff --git a/src/cloudai/workloads/nixl_kvbench/nixl_kvbench.py b/src/cloudai/workloads/nixl_kvbench/nixl_kvbench.py
index f6df85fa7..77f825b6d 100644
--- a/src/cloudai/workloads/nixl_kvbench/nixl_kvbench.py
+++ b/src/cloudai/workloads/nixl_kvbench/nixl_kvbench.py
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ class NIXLKVBenchCmdArgs(CmdArgs):
 
     docker_image_url: str
     kvbench_script: str = "/workspace/nixl/benchmark/kvbench/main.py"
-    python_executable: str = "/workspace/nixl/.venv/bin/python"
+    python_executable: str = "python"
 
     backend: str | list[str] | None = None
 
diff --git a/src/cloudai/workloads/nixl_perftest/nixl_perftest.py b/src/cloudai/workloads/nixl_perftest/nixl_perftest.py
index a65cbf88c..43eb89397 100644
--- a/src/cloudai/workloads/nixl_perftest/nixl_perftest.py
+++ b/src/cloudai/workloads/nixl_perftest/nixl_perftest.py
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ class NixlPerftestCmdArgs(CmdArgs):
     subtest: Literal["sequential-ct-perftest"]
     perftest_script: str = "/workspace/nixl/benchmark/kvbench/main.py"
     matgen_script: str = "/workspace/nixl/benchmark/kvbench/test/inference_workload_matgen.py"
-    python_executable: str = "/workspace/nixl/.venv/bin/python"
+    python_executable: str = "python"
     etcd_path: str = "etcd"
     wait_etcd_for: int = 60
 
diff --git a/tests/ref_data/nixl-perftest.sbatch b/tests/ref_data/nixl-perftest.sbatch
index 00a8d38af..ef7d7e03f 100644
--- a/tests/ref_data/nixl-perftest.sbatch
+++ b/tests/ref_data/nixl-perftest.sbatch
@@ -16,12 +16,12 @@ srun --export=ALL --mpi=pmix --container-image=url.com/docker:tag --container-mo
 
 srun --export=ALL --mpi=pmix --container-image=url.com/docker:tag --container-mounts=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output:/cloudai_run_results,__OUTPUT_DIR__/install:/cloudai_install,__OUTPUT_DIR__/output --ntasks=1 --ntasks-per-node=1 --output=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output/metadata/node-%N.toml --error=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output/metadata/nodes.err bash /cloudai_install/slurm-metadata.sh
 
-srun --export=ALL --mpi=pmix --container-image=url.com/docker:tag --container-mounts=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output:/cloudai_run_results,__OUTPUT_DIR__/install:/cloudai_install,__OUTPUT_DIR__/output --ntasks-per-node=1 --ntasks=1 -N1 bash -c "/workspace/nixl/.venv/bin/python /workspace/nixl/benchmark/kvbench/test/inference_workload_matgen.py generate --num-user-requests=2 --batch-size=1 --num-prefill-nodes=1 --num-decode-nodes=1 --results-dir=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output/matrices --prefill-tp=1 --prefill-pp=1 --prefill-cp=1 --decode-tp=1 --decode-pp=1 --decode-cp=1 --model=model-name"
+srun --export=ALL --mpi=pmix --container-image=url.com/docker:tag --container-mounts=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output:/cloudai_run_results,__OUTPUT_DIR__/install:/cloudai_install,__OUTPUT_DIR__/output --ntasks-per-node=1 --ntasks=1 -N1 bash -c "python /workspace/nixl/benchmark/kvbench/test/inference_workload_matgen.py generate --num-user-requests=2 --batch-size=1 --num-prefill-nodes=1 --num-decode-nodes=1 --results-dir=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output/matrices --prefill-tp=1 --prefill-pp=1 --prefill-cp=1 --decode-tp=1 --decode-pp=1 --decode-cp=1 --model=model-name"
 srun --export=ALL --mpi=pmix --container-image=url.com/docker:tag --container-mounts=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output:/cloudai_run_results,__OUTPUT_DIR__/install:/cloudai_install,__OUTPUT_DIR__/output --output=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output/etcd.log --overlap --ntasks-per-node=1 --ntasks=1 --nodelist=$SLURM_JOB_MASTER_NODE -N1 etcd --listen-client-urls=http://0.0.0.0:2379 --advertise-client-urls=http://$SLURM_JOB_MASTER_NODE:2379 --listen-peer-urls=http://0.0.0.0:2380 --initial-advertise-peer-urls=http://$SLURM_JOB_MASTER_NODE:2380 --initial-cluster="default=http://$SLURM_JOB_MASTER_NODE:2380" --initial-cluster-state=new  &
 etcd_pid=$!
 timeout 60 bash -c "until curl -s $NIXL_ETCD_ENDPOINTS/health > /dev/null 2>&1; do sleep 1; done" || {
    echo "ETCD ($NIXL_ETCD_ENDPOINTS) was unreachable after 60 seconds";
    exit 1
  }
-srun --export=ALL --mpi=pmix --container-image=url.com/docker:tag --container-mounts=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output:/cloudai_run_results,__OUTPUT_DIR__/install:/cloudai_install,__OUTPUT_DIR__/output --overlap bash -c "source __OUTPUT_DIR__/output/env_vars.sh;  /workspace/nixl/.venv/bin/python /workspace/nixl/benchmark/kvbench/main.py sequential-ct-perftest __OUTPUT_DIR__/output/matrices/metadata.yaml --json-output-path=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output/results.json "
+srun --export=ALL --mpi=pmix --container-image=url.com/docker:tag --container-mounts=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output:/cloudai_run_results,__OUTPUT_DIR__/install:/cloudai_install,__OUTPUT_DIR__/output --overlap bash -c "source __OUTPUT_DIR__/output/env_vars.sh;  python /workspace/nixl/benchmark/kvbench/main.py sequential-ct-perftest __OUTPUT_DIR__/output/matrices/metadata.yaml --json-output-path=__OUTPUT_DIR__/output/results.json "
 kill -9 $etcd_pid
\ No newline at end of file