diff --git a/dask_kubernetes/operator/controller/controller.py b/dask_kubernetes/operator/controller/controller.py
index 55a1ea7cd..432ccb3e7 100644
--- a/dask_kubernetes/operator/controller/controller.py
+++ b/dask_kubernetes/operator/controller/controller.py
@@ -11,11 +11,10 @@
 import kubernetes_asyncio as kubernetes
 from importlib_metadata import entry_points
 from kubernetes_asyncio.client import ApiException
+from kr8s.asyncio.objects import APIObject
 
 from dask_kubernetes.common.auth import ClusterAuth
 from dask_kubernetes.common.networking import get_scheduler_address
-from dask_kubernetes.aiopykube import HTTPClient, KubeConfig
-from dask_kubernetes.aiopykube.dask import DaskCluster
 from distributed.core import rpc, clean_exception
 from distributed.protocol.pickle import dumps
 
@@ -40,6 +39,45 @@ class SchedulerCommError(Exception):
     """Raised when unable to communicate with a scheduler."""
 
 
+class DaskCluster(APIObject):
+    version = "kubernetes.dask.org/v1"
+    endpoint = "daskclusters"
+    kind = "DaskCluster"
+    plural = "daskclusters"
+    singular = "daskcluster"
+    namespaced = True
+    scalable = True
+    scalable_spec = "worker.replicas"
+
+
+class DaskWorkerGroup(APIObject):
+    version = "kubernetes.dask.org/v1"
+    endpoint = "daskworkergroups"
+    kind = "DaskWorkerGroup"
+    plural = "daskworkergroups"
+    singular = "daskworkergroup"
+    namespaced = True
+    scalable = True
+
+
+class DaskAutoscaler(APIObject):
+    version = "kubernetes.dask.org/v1"
+    endpoint = "daskautoscalers"
+    kind = "DaskAutoscaler"
+    plural = "daskautoscalers"
+    singular = "daskautoscaler"
+    namespaced = True
+
+
+class DaskJob(APIObject):
+    version = "kubernetes.dask.org/v1"
+    endpoint = "daskjobs"
+    kind = "DaskJob"
+    plural = "daskjobs"
+    singular = "daskjob"
+    namespaced = True
+
+
 def _get_annotations(meta):
     return {
         annotation_key: annotation_value
@@ -347,10 +385,8 @@ async def handle_scheduler_service_status(
     # Otherwise mark it as Running
     else:
         phase = "Running"
-
-    api = HTTPClient(KubeConfig.from_env())
-    cluster = await DaskCluster.objects(api, namespace=namespace).get_by_name(
-        labels["dask.org/cluster-name"]
+    cluster = await DaskCluster.get(
+        labels["dask.org/cluster-name"], namespace=namespace
     )
     await cluster.patch({"status": {"phase": phase}})
 
@@ -986,8 +1022,5 @@ async def daskcluster_autoshutdown(spec, name, namespace, logger, **kwargs):
             logger.warn("Unable to connect to scheduler, skipping autoshutdown check.")
             return
         if idle_since and time.time() > idle_since + spec["idleTimeout"]:
-            api = HTTPClient(KubeConfig.from_env())
-            cluster = await DaskCluster.objects(api, namespace=namespace).get_by_name(
-                name
-            )
+            cluster = await DaskCluster.get(name, namespace=namespace)
             await cluster.delete()
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 588d0e6ba..04bb03fef 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ kubernetes-asyncio>=12.0.1
 kopf>=1.35.3
 pykube-ng>=22.9.0
 rich>=12.5.1
+kr8s==0.5.1