diff --git a/.github/workflows/verify.yaml b/.github/workflows/verify.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..673bfa73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/verify.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+name: verify
+
+on:
+  push:
+    branches:
+      - 'main'
+    paths-ignore:
+      - '*.md'
+    tags:
+      - 'v*'
+  pull_request:
+    paths-ignore:
+      - '*.md'
+  workflow_dispatch:
+
+jobs:
+  verify:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    name: Build & Test
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          submodules: true
+
+      - uses: actions/setup-go@v5
+        with:
+          go-version: ~1.22
+          cache: true
+
+      - name: go version
+        run: |
+          go version
+
+      - name: build
+        run: |
+          make
+
+      - name: verify that generated code is up-to-date
+        run: |
+          # make (which we ran in the previous step) will implicitly also run the targets manifests & generate, which
+          # could potentially modify code that is under version control, if changes have been comitted that would have
+          # required updating manifests or generated code and these updates have not been done.
+          git diff --exit-code
+
+      - name: lint
+        run: |
+          make lint
+
+      - name: test
+        run: |
+          make test
+
+      # Instead of running make docker-build, we run docker build via a dedicated action, which enables Docker layer
+      # caching.
+      - uses: docker/setup-buildx-action@v3
+      # - uses: docker/login-action@v3
+      #   with:
+      #     username: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
+      #     password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_TOKEN }}
+      - name: build container image
+        uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
+        with:
+          context: .
+          push: false
+          tags: dash0-operator-controller:latest
+          cache-from: type=gha
+          cache-to: type=gha,mode=max
+
+      # TODO look into https://github.com/helm/kind-action and run e2e test in GH action
+      # - name: end-to-end test
+      #   run: |
+      #     make test-e2e
\ No newline at end of file