diff --git a/nodepool/driver/kubernetes/config.py b/nodepool/driver/kubernetes/config.py
index 7223ebdc4..221613493 100644
--- a/nodepool/driver/kubernetes/config.py
+++ b/nodepool/driver/kubernetes/config.py
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ class KubernetesProviderConfig(ProviderConfig):
 
         provider = {
             v.Required('pools'): [pool],
-            v.Required('context'): str,
+            'context': str,
             'launch-retries': int,
         }
 
diff --git a/nodepool/driver/kubernetes/provider.py b/nodepool/driver/kubernetes/provider.py
index 636cf1b56..268d02105 100644
--- a/nodepool/driver/kubernetes/provider.py
+++ b/nodepool/driver/kubernetes/provider.py
@@ -49,7 +49,13 @@ class KubernetesProvider(Provider):
             self.namespace_names.add(pool.name)
 
     def _get_client(self, context):
-        conf = config.new_client_from_config(context=context)
+        try:
+            conf = config.new_client_from_config(context=context)
+        except FileNotFoundError:
+            self.log.debug("Kubernetes config file not found, attempting "
+                           "to load in-cluster configs")
+            conf = config.load_incluster_config()
+
         return (
             k8s_client.CoreV1Api(conf),
             k8s_client.RbacAuthorizationV1beta1Api(conf))