diff --git a/.changes/unreleased/Fixes-20230213-203317.yaml b/.changes/unreleased/Fixes-20230213-203317.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ae64c4e2d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/unreleased/Fixes-20230213-203317.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+kind: Fixes
+body: Pin dataproc serverless spark runtime to `1.1`
+time: 2023-02-13T20:33:17.839861-08:00
+custom:
+  Author: colin-rogers-dbt
+  Issue: "531"
diff --git a/dbt/adapters/bigquery/python_submissions.py b/dbt/adapters/bigquery/python_submissions.py
index 43b8201d1..f82b72d7c 100644
--- a/dbt/adapters/bigquery/python_submissions.py
+++ b/dbt/adapters/bigquery/python_submissions.py
@@ -121,7 +121,8 @@ def _get_job_client(self) -> dataproc_v1.BatchControllerClient:
 
     def _submit_dataproc_job(self) -> dataproc_v1.types.jobs.Job:
         # create the Dataproc Serverless job config
-        batch = dataproc_v1.Batch()
+        # need to pin dataproc version to 1.1 as it now defaults to 2.0
+        batch = dataproc_v1.Batch({"runtime_config": dataproc_v1.RuntimeConfig(version="1.1")})
         batch.pyspark_batch.main_python_file_uri = self.gcs_location
         # how to keep this up to date?
         # we should probably also open this up to be configurable