diff --git a/metadata-service/auth-impl/build.gradle b/metadata-service/auth-impl/build.gradle
index f6ed0033667fa6..f87b2cd2b2c892 100644
--- a/metadata-service/auth-impl/build.gradle
+++ b/metadata-service/auth-impl/build.gradle
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ dependencies {
 
   implementation 'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-api:0.11.2'
   runtimeOnly 'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-impl:0.11.2',
-      'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-jackson:0.11.2' // or 'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-gson:0.11.2' for gson
+      'io.jsonwebtoken:jjwt-jackson:0.11.2'
 
   compile externalDependency.lombok
 
diff --git a/metadata-service/auth-impl/src/main/java/com/datahub/authentication/token/TokenService.java b/metadata-service/auth-impl/src/main/java/com/datahub/authentication/token/TokenService.java
index 419c192175c0a3..4b844ed07048f6 100644
--- a/metadata-service/auth-impl/src/main/java/com/datahub/authentication/token/TokenService.java
+++ b/metadata-service/auth-impl/src/main/java/com/datahub/authentication/token/TokenService.java
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import io.jsonwebtoken.JwtBuilder;
 import io.jsonwebtoken.Jwts;
 import io.jsonwebtoken.SignatureAlgorithm;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.security.Key;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Base64;
@@ -104,7 +105,7 @@ public String generateAccessToken(@Nonnull final String sub, @Nonnull final Map<
     if (this.iss != null) {
       builder.setIssuer(this.iss);
     }
-    byte[] apiKeySecretBytes = Base64.getDecoder().decode(this.signingKey); // Key must be base64'd.
+    byte [] apiKeySecretBytes = this.signingKey.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
     final Key signingKey = new SecretKeySpec(apiKeySecretBytes, this.signingAlgorithm.getJcaName());
     return builder.signWith(signingKey, this.signingAlgorithm).compact();
   }
@@ -118,8 +119,10 @@ public String generateAccessToken(@Nonnull final String sub, @Nonnull final Map<
   public TokenClaims validateAccessToken(@Nonnull final String accessToken) throws TokenException {
     Objects.requireNonNull(accessToken);
     try {
+      byte [] apiKeySecretBytes = this.signingKey.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
+      final String base64Key = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(apiKeySecretBytes);
       final Claims claims = (Claims) Jwts.parserBuilder()
-          .setSigningKey(this.signingKey)
+          .setSigningKey(base64Key)
           .build()
           .parse(accessToken)
           .getBody();