diff --git a/.github/add-license-headers.sh b/.github/add-license-headers.sh
index 142a251529f..5eccd4cd03d 100644
--- a/.github/add-license-headers.sh
+++ b/.github/add-license-headers.sh
@@ -5,10 +5,11 @@ function add_license () {
     (find "$script_path" -name $1 | grep -v "/bin/" | grep -v "/obj/" )|while read fname; do
         line=$(sed -n '2p;3q' "$fname")
         if ! [[ "$line" == " * Licensed to Elasticsearch B.V. under one or more contributor" ]] ; then
-            cat "${script_path}.github/license-header.txt" "$fname" > "${fname}.new"
+            # awk joins the header with the existing file, inserting a newline between them
+            awk '(NR>1 && FNR==1){print ""}1' "${script_path}.github/license-header.txt" "$fname" > "${fname}.new"
             mv "${fname}.new" "$fname"
         fi
     done
 }
 
-add_license "*.cs"
+add_license "*.cs"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.github/license-header.txt b/.github/license-header.txt
index ce99d4cac30..9880b336e76 100644
--- a/.github/license-header.txt
+++ b/.github/license-header.txt
@@ -16,4 +16,3 @@
  * specific language governing permissions and limitations
  * under the License.
  */
-