diff --git a/jjb/defaults.yaml b/jjb/defaults.yaml
index 819cfdf..e6940a7 100644
--- a/jjb/defaults.yaml
+++ b/jjb/defaults.yaml
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@
     cord-repo-manifest: manifest.git
     cordqa-manifest-repo: qa-manifest.git
 
+    # default email address to send job failure messages
+    failure-email-address: 'cord-dev@opencord.org'
+
     # regexp for gerrit triggers
     # list of supported branches, for branch-regexp
     supported-branches-regexp: '^(master|cord-6.0|cord-5.0|cord-4.1|cord-4.0)$'