diff --git a/pkg/controller/job/job_controller.go b/pkg/controller/job/job_controller.go
index 2f1fe144772..88167169ed9 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/job/job_controller.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/job/job_controller.go
@@ -1921,7 +1921,7 @@ func (jm *Controller) cleanupPodFinalizers(job *batch.Job) {
 func recordJobPodsCreationTotal(job *batch.Job, jobCtx *syncJobCtx, succeeded, failed int32) {
 	reason := metrics.PodCreateNew
 	if feature.DefaultFeatureGate.Enabled(features.JobPodReplacementPolicy) {
-		if *job.Spec.PodReplacementPolicy == batch.Failed && jobCtx.failed > 0 {
+		if ptr.Deref(job.Spec.PodReplacementPolicy, batch.TerminatingOrFailed) == batch.Failed && jobCtx.failed > 0 {
 			reason = metrics.PodRecreateFailed
 		} else if jobCtx.failed > 0 || ptr.Deref(jobCtx.terminating, 0) > 0 {
 			reason = metrics.PodRecreateTerminatingOrFailed
diff --git a/pkg/controller/job/job_controller_test.go b/pkg/controller/job/job_controller_test.go
index 07d6f71448a..7f33daa9b62 100644
--- a/pkg/controller/job/job_controller_test.go
+++ b/pkg/controller/job/job_controller_test.go
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ func newJobWithName(name string, parallelism, completions, backoffLimit int32, c
 		j.Spec.Parallelism = nil
 	}
 	j.Spec.BackoffLimit = &backoffLimit
-	defaultPodReplacementPolicy(j)
+
 	return j
 }
 
@@ -3880,7 +3880,6 @@ func TestSyncJobWithJobBackoffLimitPerIndex(t *testing.T) {
 			manager.podStoreSynced = alwaysReady
 			manager.jobStoreSynced = alwaysReady
 			job := &tc.job
-			defaultPodReplacementPolicy(job)
 
 			actual := job
 			manager.updateStatusHandler = func(ctx context.Context, job *batch.Job) (*batch.Job, error) {
@@ -5532,11 +5531,3 @@ func setDurationDuringTest(val *time.Duration, newVal time.Duration) func() {
 		*val = origVal
 	}
 }
-
-// Helper to simulate defaulting of the PodReplacementPolicy field in unit tests
-// as the job controller code assumes it is set by the kube-apiserver.
-func defaultPodReplacementPolicy(job *batch.Job) {
-	if feature.DefaultFeatureGate.Enabled(features.JobPodReplacementPolicy) && job.Spec.PodReplacementPolicy == nil {
-		job.Spec.PodReplacementPolicy = ptr.To(batch.TerminatingOrFailed)
-	}
-}