diff --git a/webservice/webservice.py b/webservice/webservice.py
index 0766b82cfe47a3f033521a21ff99330dcd8d18ef..55b97296f4fe314139f3b616e1e733636a550e5c 100644
--- a/webservice/webservice.py
+++ b/webservice/webservice.py
@@ -63,7 +63,9 @@ def init_job_db(config):
     :return: a sqlite3 connection instance to the database
     """
     logging.info("Initializing database")
-    conn = sqlite3.connect(config['web-service']['job-db'])
+    db_path = Path(config['web-service']['job-db'])
+    db_path.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+    conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path)
     conn.execute("PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON")
 
     conn.executescript("""