diff --git a/hack/verify-flags/known-flags.txt b/hack/verify-flags/known-flags.txt
index db06c19d75e..721fa9bb3c6 100644
--- a/hack/verify-flags/known-flags.txt
+++ b/hack/verify-flags/known-flags.txt
@@ -446,6 +446,7 @@ suicide-timeout
 sync-frequency
 system-cgroups
 system-container
+system-pods-startup-timeout
 system-reserved
 target-port
 tcp-services
diff --git a/test/e2e/e2e.go b/test/e2e/e2e.go
index b4495823abb..32318267c8e 100644
--- a/test/e2e/e2e.go
+++ b/test/e2e/e2e.go
@@ -40,11 +40,6 @@ import (
 )
 
 const (
-	// podStartupTimeout is the time to allow all pods in the cluster to become
-	// running and ready before any e2e tests run. It includes pulling all of
-	// the pods (as of 5/18/15 this is 8 pods).
-	podStartupTimeout = 10 * time.Minute
-
 	// imagePrePullingTimeout is the time we wait for the e2e-image-puller
 	// static pods to pull the list of seeded images. If they don't pull
 	// images within this time we simply log their output and carry on
@@ -129,6 +124,7 @@ var _ = ginkgo.SynchronizedBeforeSuite(func() []byte {
 	// cluster infrastructure pods that are being pulled or started can block
 	// test pods from running, and tests that ensure all pods are running and
 	// ready will fail).
+	podStartupTimeout := framework.TestContext.SystemPodsStartupTimeout
 	if err := framework.WaitForPodsRunningReady(c, api.NamespaceSystem, int32(framework.TestContext.MinStartupPods), podStartupTimeout, framework.ImagePullerLabels); err != nil {
 		framework.DumpAllNamespaceInfo(c, api.NamespaceSystem)
 		framework.LogFailedContainers(c, api.NamespaceSystem)
@@ -141,7 +137,7 @@ var _ = ginkgo.SynchronizedBeforeSuite(func() []byte {
 		// and we don't even run the image puller on all platforms (including GKE).
 		// We wait for it so we get an indication of failures in the logs, and to
 		// maximize benefit of image pre-pulling.
-		framework.Logf("WARNING: Image pulling pods failed to enter success in %v: %v", podStartupTimeout, err)
+		framework.Logf("WARNING: Image pulling pods failed to enter success in %v: %v", imagePrePullingTimeout, err)
 	}
 
 	return nil
diff --git a/test/e2e/framework/test_context.go b/test/e2e/framework/test_context.go
index c998331e0b6..a0790b3aaf7 100644
--- a/test/e2e/framework/test_context.go
+++ b/test/e2e/framework/test_context.go
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ package framework
 import (
 	"flag"
 	"os"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/onsi/ginkgo/config"
 	"k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/client/unversioned/clientcmd"
@@ -26,27 +27,29 @@ import (
 )
 
 type TestContextType struct {
-	KubeConfig            string
-	KubeContext           string
-	KubeAPIContentType    string
-	KubeVolumeDir         string
-	CertDir               string
-	Host                  string
-	RepoRoot              string
-	Provider              string
-	CloudConfig           CloudConfig
-	KubectlPath           string
-	OutputDir             string
-	ReportDir             string
-	ReportPrefix          string
-	Prefix                string
-	MinStartupPods        int
-	UpgradeTarget         string
-	PrometheusPushGateway string
-	OSDistro              string
-	VerifyServiceAccount  bool
-	DeleteNamespace       bool
-	CleanStart            bool
+	KubeConfig         string
+	KubeContext        string
+	KubeAPIContentType string
+	KubeVolumeDir      string
+	CertDir            string
+	Host               string
+	RepoRoot           string
+	Provider           string
+	CloudConfig        CloudConfig
+	KubectlPath        string
+	OutputDir          string
+	ReportDir          string
+	ReportPrefix       string
+	Prefix             string
+	MinStartupPods     int
+	// Timeout for waiting for system pods to be running
+	SystemPodsStartupTimeout time.Duration
+	UpgradeTarget            string
+	PrometheusPushGateway    string
+	OSDistro                 string
+	VerifyServiceAccount     bool
+	DeleteNamespace          bool
+	CleanStart               bool
 	// If set to 'true' or 'all' framework will start a goroutine monitoring resource usage of system add-ons.
 	// It will read the data every 30 seconds from all Nodes and print summary during afterEach. If set to 'master'
 	// only master Node will be monitored.
@@ -118,6 +121,7 @@ func RegisterFlags() {
 
 	flag.StringVar(&cloudConfig.ClusterTag, "cluster-tag", "", "Tag used to identify resources.  Only required if provider is aws.")
 	flag.IntVar(&TestContext.MinStartupPods, "minStartupPods", 0, "The number of pods which we need to see in 'Running' state with a 'Ready' condition of true, before we try running tests. This is useful in any cluster which needs some base pod-based services running before it can be used.")
+	flag.DurationVar(&TestContext.SystemPodsStartupTimeout, "system-pods-startup-timeout", 10*time.Minute, "Timeout for waiting for all system pods to be running before starting tests.")
 	flag.StringVar(&TestContext.UpgradeTarget, "upgrade-target", "ci/latest", "Version to upgrade to (e.g. 'release/stable', 'release/latest', 'ci/latest', '0.19.1', '0.19.1-669-gabac8c8') if doing an upgrade test.")
 	flag.StringVar(&TestContext.PrometheusPushGateway, "prom-push-gateway", "", "The URL to prometheus gateway, so that metrics can be pushed during e2es and scraped by prometheus. Typically something like 127.0.0.1:9091.")
 	flag.BoolVar(&TestContext.VerifyServiceAccount, "e2e-verify-service-account", true, "If true tests will verify the service account before running.")