diff --git a/hack/verify-goimports.sh b/hack/verify-goimports.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..d0a2af3a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hack/verify-goimports.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+# Copyright 2022 The cert-manager Authors.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+
+goimports=$(realpath "$1")
+
+echo "+++ running goimports"
+output=$("$goimports" -l .)
+if [ ! -z "${output}" ]; then
+    echo "${output}"
+    echo "+++ goimports failed; run 'goimports -w .' to fix"
+    exit 1
+fi
diff --git a/make/Makefile b/make/Makefile
index 56624f84f..133b05db3 100644
--- a/make/Makefile
+++ b/make/Makefile
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ HOST_ARCH = $(shell $(GO) env GOARCH)
 
 include make/git.mk
 include make/tools.mk
+include make/ci.mk
 include make/base_images.mk
 include make/cmctl.mk
 include make/server.mk
diff --git a/make/ci.mk b/make/ci.mk
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ace4d3100
--- /dev/null
+++ b/make/ci.mk
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+.PHONY: ci-presubmit
+ci-presubmit: verify-imports
+
+.PHONY: verify-imports
+verify-imports: bin/tools/goimports
+	./hack/verify-goimports.sh $<
diff --git a/make/tools.mk b/make/tools.mk
index fb07f7eba..67d83e330 100644
--- a/make/tools.mk
+++ b/make/tools.mk
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ KIND_VERSION=0.11.1
 COSIGN_VERSION=1.3.1
 CMREL_VERSION=a1e2bad95be9688794fd0571c4c40e88cccf9173
 K8S_RELEASE_NOTES_VERSION=0.7.0
+GOIMPORTS_VERSION=0.1.8
 YTT_VERSION=0.36.0
 YQ_VERSION=4.11.2
 
@@ -26,7 +27,7 @@ bin/scratch/tools:
 	@mkdir -p $@
 
 .PHONY: tools
-tools: bin/tools/helm bin/tools/kubectl bin/tools/kind bin/tools/cosign bin/tools/release-notes bin/tools/cmrel bin/tools/ytt bin/tools/yq
+tools: bin/tools/helm bin/tools/kubectl bin/tools/kind bin/tools/cosign bin/tools/cmrel bin/tools/release-notes bin/tools/goimports bin/tools/ytt bin/tools/yq
 
 ########
 # Helm #
@@ -109,6 +110,13 @@ bin/tools/cmrel: | bin/tools
 bin/tools/release-notes: | bin/tools
 	GOBIN=$(shell pwd)/$(dir $@) go install k8s.io/release/cmd/release-notes@v$(K8S_RELEASE_NOTES_VERSION)
 
+#############
+# goimports #
+#############
+
+bin/tools/goimports: | bin/tools
+	GOBIN=$(shell pwd)/$(dir $@) go install golang.org/x/tools/cmd/goimports@v$(GOIMPORTS_VERSION)
+
 #######
 # ytt #
 #######