diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 37e32e84..151a36f6 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ allprojects {
 }
 
 dependencies {
-    testCompile ('junit:junit:4.12') {
+    testCompile ('junit:junit:4.13.2') {
         exclude group: 'org.hamcrest'
     }
     testCompile "org.opensearch.plugin:reindex-client:${opensearch_version}"
@@ -190,3 +190,23 @@ run {
 }
 
 apply from: 'build-tools/pkgbuild.gradle'
+
+// updateVersion: Task to auto increment to the next development iteration
+task updateVersion {
+    onlyIf { System.getProperty('newVersion') }
+    doLast {
+        ext.newVersion = System.getProperty('newVersion')
+        println "Setting version to ${newVersion}."
+        // String tokenization to support -SNAPSHOT
+        ant.replaceregexp(match: opensearch_version.tokenize('-')[0], replace: newVersion.tokenize('-')[0], flags:'g', byline:true) {
+            fileset(dir: projectDir) {
+                // Include the required files that needs to be updated with new Version
+                include(name: ".github/workflows/build.yml")
+                include(name: ".github/workflows/multi-node-test-workflow.yml")
+
+            }
+        }
+        ant.replaceregexp(file:'build.gradle', match: '"opensearch.version", "\\d.*"', replace: '"opensearch.version", "' + newVersion.tokenize('-')[0] + '-SNAPSHOT"', flags:'g', byline:true)
+    }
+}
+