diff --git a/roles/upload-afs-synchronize/tasks/main.yaml b/roles/upload-afs-synchronize/tasks/main.yaml
index 7f04796d1..492b47f5c 100644
--- a/roles/upload-afs-synchronize/tasks/main.yaml
+++ b/roles/upload-afs-synchronize/tasks/main.yaml
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+- name: Precreate AFS target directory
+  # rsync will create the target directory but not its parent directories
+  # which may not yet exist
+  file:
+    path: "{{ afs_target }}"
+    state: directory
 - name: Upload contents to AFS
   synchronize:
     src: "{{ afs_source }}"