diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 4f37e9995d58bfd3850e73b0d2fd135f5f826a4d..39d03fbe8ae7d311f7d8e9de1f7bb09784a8e624 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ documents those changes that are of interest to users and admins.
  -- NRT - Fix possible memory leak if using multiple adapters.
  -- NRT - Fix issue where there are more than NRT_MAXADAPTERS on a system.
  -- NRT - Increase Max number of adapters from 8 -> 9
+ -- NRT - initialize missing variables when the PMD is starting a job
 
 * Changes in Slurm 2.6.6
 ========================
diff --git a/src/plugins/switch/nrt/libpermapi/shr_64.c b/src/plugins/switch/nrt/libpermapi/shr_64.c
index 099fbd20cac51174de747d3204238568bbd649d2..c8b6c00ff213bc1c340984becc2f615b60310162 100644
--- a/src/plugins/switch/nrt/libpermapi/shr_64.c
+++ b/src/plugins/switch/nrt/libpermapi/shr_64.c
@@ -169,6 +169,9 @@ static int _unpack_srun_ctx(slurm_step_ctx_t **step_ctx, Buf buffer)
 	if (rc != SLURM_SUCCESS)
 		goto unpack_error;
 
+	ctx->job_id	= ctx->step_req->job_id;
+	ctx->user_id	= ctx->step_req->user_id;
+
 	safe_unpack32(&tmp_32, buffer);
 	ctx->launch_state = step_launch_state_create(ctx);
 	ctx->launch_state->slurmctld_socket_fd = tmp_32;
@@ -239,6 +242,8 @@ static srun_job_t * _unpack_srun_job_rec(Buf buffer)
 		host_ptr++;
 	}
 
+	slurm_step_ctx_params_t_init(&job_data->ctx_params);
+
 	return job_data;
 
 unpack_error: