diff --git a/infra/inttest/minio.yaml b/infra/inttest/minio.yaml
index 32f7a0b..e42f14b 100644
--- a/infra/inttest/minio.yaml
+++ b/infra/inttest/minio.yaml
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # Namespace is substituted at runtime via envsubst
 # No persistence — uses emptyDir
 # Credentials: minioadmin/minioadmin (hardcoded for ephemeral sandbox)
-# Includes a Job that waits for MinIO readiness and creates the stonks-normalized bucket
+# Bucket creation is handled by seed_minio.py (no separate init job needed)
 ---
 apiVersion: apps/v1
 kind: Deployment
@@ -100,98 +100,3 @@ spec:
     - port: 9000
       targetPort: 9000
       protocol: TCP
----
-apiVersion: batch/v1
-kind: Job
-metadata:
-  name: minio-bucket-init
-  namespace: ${NAMESPACE}
-  labels:
-    app: minio
-    tier: infra
-    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: stonks-oracle
-spec:
-  backoffLimit: 4
-  template:
-    metadata:
-      labels:
-        app: minio-bucket-init
-        tier: infra
-    spec:
-      imagePullSecrets:
-        - name: dockerhub-credentials
-      automountServiceAccountToken: false
-      securityContext:
-        runAsNonRoot: true
-        runAsUser: 1000
-        runAsGroup: 1000
-        seccompProfile:
-          type: RuntimeDefault
-      restartPolicy: OnFailure
-      containers:
-        - name: bucket-init
-          image: registry.celestium.life/dockerhub-cache/library/python:3.12-slim
-          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
-          securityContext:
-            allowPrivilegeEscalation: false
-            capabilities:
-              drop: ["ALL"]
-          resources:
-            requests:
-              cpu: 50m
-              memory: 64Mi
-            limits:
-              cpu: 250m
-              memory: 128Mi
-          env:
-            - name: HTTP_PROXY
-              value: ""
-            - name: HTTPS_PROXY
-              value: ""
-            - name: http_proxy
-              value: ""
-            - name: https_proxy
-              value: ""
-            - name: NO_PROXY
-              value: "*"
-            - name: no_proxy
-              value: "*"
-          command: ["python", "-c"]
-          args:
-            - |
-              import urllib.request, urllib.error, time
-
-              # Disable all proxy usage in urllib
-              no_proxy_handler = urllib.request.ProxyHandler({})
-              opener = urllib.request.build_opener(no_proxy_handler)
-              urllib.request.install_opener(opener)
-
-              endpoint = "http://minio:9000"
-              max_wait = 60
-
-              # Wait for MinIO readiness
-              print("Waiting for MinIO to be ready...")
-              start = time.time()
-              while time.time() - start < max_wait:
-                  try:
-                      r = urllib.request.urlopen(f"{endpoint}/minio/health/ready", timeout=3)
-                      if r.status == 200:
-                          print("MinIO is ready.")
-                          break
-                  except Exception:
-                      pass
-                  time.sleep(2)
-              else:
-                  raise SystemExit("MinIO did not become ready within 60s")
-
-              # Create bucket via S3 PUT request
-              bucket = "stonks-normalized"
-              req = urllib.request.Request(f"{endpoint}/{bucket}", method="PUT")
-              try:
-                  urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=5)
-                  print(f"Bucket '{bucket}' created successfully.")
-              except urllib.error.HTTPError as e:
-                  if e.code == 409:
-                      print(f"Bucket '{bucket}' already exists.")
-                  else:
-                      raise
diff --git a/infra/inttest/run_pipeline.sh b/infra/inttest/run_pipeline.sh
index 8795a68..cb4aab0 100755
--- a/infra/inttest/run_pipeline.sh
+++ b/infra/inttest/run_pipeline.sh
@@ -312,14 +312,6 @@ if ! kubectl wait --for=condition=ready pod -l app=minio -n "$NAMESPACE" --timeo
   exit 2
 fi
 
-log "Waiting for minio-bucket-init job ..."
-if ! kubectl wait --for=condition=complete job/minio-bucket-init -n "$NAMESPACE" --timeout=120s; then
-  log "WARNING: minio-bucket-init job did not complete within 120s"
-  log "Bucket-init pod logs:"
-  kubectl logs -l app=minio-bucket-init -n "$NAMESPACE" --tail=30 2>&1 || true
-  kubectl describe job/minio-bucket-init -n "$NAMESPACE" 2>&1 | tail -20 || true
-fi
-
 stage_end "infra_deploy" "ok"
 
 # ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
@@ -402,6 +394,15 @@ envsubst < "$REPO_ROOT/infra/inttest/services.yaml" \
   | kubectl apply -n "$NAMESPACE" -f -
 
 log "Waiting for all API services to become ready ..."
+# Wait for pods to be created by the ReplicaSet controller before checking readiness.
+# kubectl wait fails immediately with "no matching resources found" if no pods exist yet.
+for i in $(seq 1 30); do
+  POD_COUNT=$(kubectl get pods -n "$NAMESPACE" -l tier=api --no-headers 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
+  if [ "$POD_COUNT" -ge 4 ]; then
+    break
+  fi
+  sleep 2
+done
 if ! kubectl wait --for=condition=ready pod -l tier=api -n "$NAMESPACE" --timeout=120s; then
   log "FATAL: API services did not become ready"
   log "Pod statuses:"