diff --git a/airbyte-workers/src/main/java/io/airbyte/workers/temporal/scheduling/activities/JobCreationAndStatusUpdateActivityImpl.java b/airbyte-workers/src/main/java/io/airbyte/workers/temporal/scheduling/activities/JobCreationAndStatusUpdateActivityImpl.java
index 295112266ecaa..2e321793c832b 100644
--- a/airbyte-workers/src/main/java/io/airbyte/workers/temporal/scheduling/activities/JobCreationAndStatusUpdateActivityImpl.java
+++ b/airbyte-workers/src/main/java/io/airbyte/workers/temporal/scheduling/activities/JobCreationAndStatusUpdateActivityImpl.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 import static io.airbyte.persistence.job.models.AttemptStatus.FAILED;
 
 import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonNode;
+import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
 import datadog.trace.api.Trace;
 import io.airbyte.commons.docker.DockerUtils;
@@ -66,7 +67,6 @@
 import jakarta.inject.Singleton;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
-import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Comparator;
 import java.util.HashSet;
@@ -483,10 +483,13 @@ private void failNonTerminalJobs(final UUID connectionId) {
       ReleaseStage.generally_available, 4);
   private static final Comparator<ReleaseStage> RELEASE_STAGE_COMPARATOR = Comparator.comparingInt(RELEASE_STAGE_ORDER::get);
 
-  private static List<ReleaseStage> orderByReleaseStageAsc(final List<ReleaseStage> releaseStages) {
-    final List<ReleaseStage> copiedList = new ArrayList<>(releaseStages);
-    copiedList.sort(RELEASE_STAGE_COMPARATOR);
-    return copiedList;
+  @VisibleForTesting
+  static List<ReleaseStage> orderByReleaseStageAsc(final List<ReleaseStage> releaseStages) {
+    // Using collector to get a mutable list
+    return releaseStages.stream()
+        .filter(stage -> stage != null)
+        .sorted(RELEASE_STAGE_COMPARATOR)
+        .toList();
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/airbyte-workers/src/test/java/io/airbyte/workers/temporal/scheduling/activities/JobCreationAndStatusUpdateActivityTest.java b/airbyte-workers/src/test/java/io/airbyte/workers/temporal/scheduling/activities/JobCreationAndStatusUpdateActivityTest.java
index ccdb8447fd6c4..0efcb27e5c6d3 100644
--- a/airbyte-workers/src/test/java/io/airbyte/workers/temporal/scheduling/activities/JobCreationAndStatusUpdateActivityTest.java
+++ b/airbyte-workers/src/test/java/io/airbyte/workers/temporal/scheduling/activities/JobCreationAndStatusUpdateActivityTest.java
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
 import io.airbyte.config.persistence.ConfigNotFoundException;
 import io.airbyte.config.persistence.ConfigRepository;
 import io.airbyte.config.persistence.StreamResetPersistence;
+import io.airbyte.db.instance.configs.jooq.generated.enums.ReleaseStage;
 import io.airbyte.persistence.job.JobCreator;
 import io.airbyte.persistence.job.JobNotifier;
 import io.airbyte.persistence.job.JobPersistence;
@@ -535,4 +536,13 @@ void ensureCleanJobState() throws IOException {
 
   }
 
+  @Test
+  void testReleaseStageOrdering() {
+    final List<ReleaseStage> input = List.of(ReleaseStage.alpha, ReleaseStage.custom, ReleaseStage.beta, ReleaseStage.generally_available);
+    final List<ReleaseStage> expected = List.of(ReleaseStage.custom, ReleaseStage.alpha, ReleaseStage.beta, ReleaseStage.generally_available);
+
+    Assertions.assertThat(JobCreationAndStatusUpdateActivityImpl.orderByReleaseStageAsc(input))
+        .containsExactlyElementsOf(expected);
+  }
+
 }