diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 6c9b3e08..c5623994 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -199,3 +199,15 @@ publishing {
     gradle.startParameter.setShowStacktrace(ShowStacktrace.ALWAYS)
     gradle.startParameter.setLogLevel(LogLevel.DEBUG)
 }
+
+// updateVersion: Task to auto increment to the next development iteration
+task updateVersion {
+    onlyIf { System.getProperty('newVersion') }
+    doLast {
+        ext.newVersion = System.getProperty('newVersion')
+        println "Setting version to ${newVersion}."
+        // String tokenization to support -SNAPSHOT
+        // Include the required files that needs to be updated with new Version
+        ant.replaceregexp(file:'build.gradle', match: '"opensearch.version", "\\d.*"', replace: '"opensearch.version", "' + newVersion.tokenize('-')[0] + '-SNAPSHOT"', flags:'g', byline:true)
+    }
+}  
\ No newline at end of file