diff --git a/lib/galaxy/celery/tasks.py b/lib/galaxy/celery/tasks.py
index d452a29dfd80..15f6c989af18 100644
--- a/lib/galaxy/celery/tasks.py
+++ b/lib/galaxy/celery/tasks.py
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 import json
 from concurrent.futures import TimeoutError
+import datetime
 from functools import lru_cache
+import os
 from pathlib import Path
+import shutil
 from typing import (
     Any,
     Callable,
@@ -34,6 +37,7 @@
 from galaxy.managers.tool_data import ToolDataImportManager
 from galaxy.metadata.set_metadata import set_metadata_portable
 from galaxy.model.scoped_session import galaxy_scoped_session
+from galaxy.objectstore import BaseObjectStore
 from galaxy.schema.tasks import (
     ComputeDatasetHashTaskRequest,
     GenerateHistoryContentDownload,
@@ -389,3 +393,53 @@ def prune_history_audit_table(sa_session: galaxy_scoped_session):
 def cleanup_short_term_storage(storage_monitor: ShortTermStorageMonitor):
     """Cleanup short term storage."""
     storage_monitor.cleanup()
+
+
+@galaxy_task(action="clean up job working directories")
+def cleanup_jwds(sa_session: galaxy_scoped_session, object_store: BaseObjectStore):
+    """Cleanup job working directories for failed jobs that are older than X days"""
+    def get_failed_jobs():
+        failed_jobs = {}
+        jobs = sa_session.query(model.Job).filter(
+            model.Job.state == "error", model.Job.update_time > datetime.datetime.now() - datetime.timedelta(days=days), model.Job.object_store_id is not None
+        )
+
+        for job in jobs:
+            failed_jobs[job.id] = object_store.get_filename(job, base_dir="job_work", dir_only=True, obj_dir=True)
+
+        return failed_jobs
+
+    def delete_jwd(jwd_path):
+        try:
+            # Validate that the path is a JWD
+            # It is a JWD if the following conditions are true:
+            # 1. Check if tool_script.sh exists
+            # 2. Check if directories 'inputs', and 'outputs' exist
+            if (
+                os.path.exists(jwd_path)
+                and os.path.exists(f"{jwd_path}/tool_script.sh")
+                and os.path.exists(f"{jwd_path}/inputs")
+                and os.path.exists(f"{jwd_path}/outputs")
+            ):
+                shutil.rmtree(jwd_path)
+        except OSError as e:
+            log.error(f"Error deleting job working directory: {jwd_path} : {e.strerror}")
+
+    # days should be converted to a config option
+    days = 5
+    galaxy_log_dir = "/var/log/galaxy"
+    log_file_name = f"jwds_cleanup_{datetime.datetime.now().strftime('%d_%m_%Y-%I_%M_%S')}.log"
+
+    failed_jobs = get_failed_jobs()
+
+    if not failed_jobs:
+        log.info("No failed jobs found within the last %s days", days)
+
+    with open(f"{galaxy_log_dir}/{log_file_name}", "w") as jwd_log:
+        jwd_log.write(
+                    "The following job working directories (JWDs) belonging "
+                    "to the failed jobs are deleted\nJob id: JWD path\n"
+                )
+        for job_id, job_working_directory in failed_jobs.items():
+            delete_jwd(job_working_directory)
+            jwd_log.write(f"{job_id}: {job_working_directory}")