diff --git a/tests/soak/ccloud.config.example b/tests/soak/ccloud.config.example
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..85e0b9c04
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/soak/ccloud.config.example
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+bootstrap.servers=<add your bootstraps here>
+sasl.mechanisms=PLAIN
+security.protocol=SASL_SSL
+sasl.username=<your ccloud access key>
+sasl.password=<your ccloud secret>
+enable.idempotence=true
+debug=eos,generic,broker,security,consumer
+linger.ms=2
+compression.type=lz4
diff --git a/tests/soak/otel-config.yaml b/tests/soak/otel-config.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1c5e5e4fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/soak/otel-config.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+receivers:
+  otlp:
+    protocols:
+      grpc:
+
+processors:
+  batch:
+    send_batch_max_size: 100
+    send_batch_size: 10
+    timeout: 10s
+
+exporters:
+  datadog:
+    api:
+      site: datadoghq.com
+      key: KEY
+    logs:
+      enabled: true
+    metrics:
+      histograms:
+        mode: distributions
+        send_aggregation_metrics: true
+
+service:
+  telemetry:
+    logs:
+      level: "debug"
+  pipelines:
+    metrics:
+      receivers: [otlp]
+      processors: [batch]
+      exporters: [datadog]
+    logs:
+      receivers: [otlp]
+      processors: [batch]
+      exporters: [datadog]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/soak/run.sh b/tests/soak/run.sh
index 47826e590..e90cffa2d 100755
--- a/tests/soak/run.sh
+++ b/tests/soak/run.sh
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
 #!/bin/bash
-#
 
-set -e
 source venv/bin/activate
 
 librdkafka_version=$(python3 -c 'from confluent_kafka import libversion; print(libversion()[0])')
@@ -13,12 +11,23 @@ fi
 
 set -u
 topic="pysoak-$TESTID-$librdkafka_version"
-
-echo "Starting soak client using topic $topic"
+logfile="${TESTID}.log.bz2"
+export HOSTNAME=$(hostname)
+echo "Starting soak client using topic $topic. Logging to $logfile."
 set +x
-time opentelemetry-instrument confluent-kafka-python/tests/soak/soakclient.py -i $TESTID -t $topic -r 80 -f  confluent-kafka-python/ccloud.config 2>&1
+# Ignore SIGINT in children (inherited)
+trap "" SIGINT
+time opentelemetry-instrument confluent-kafka-python/tests/soak/soakclient.py -i $TESTID -t $topic -r 80 -f $1 |& tee /dev/tty | bzip2 > $logfile &
+PID=$!
+# On SIGINT kill only the first process of the pipe
+onsigint() {
+        # List children of $PID only
+        ps --ppid $PID -f | grep soakclient.py | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}' | xargs kill
+}
+trap onsigint SIGINT
+# Await the result
+wait $PID
 ret=$?
 echo "Python client exited with status $ret"
+echo "Ending soak client using topic $topic. Logging to $logfile."
 exit $ret
-
-