diff --git a/buildscripts/resmokelib/suitesconfig.py b/buildscripts/resmokelib/suitesconfig.py
index baf6d16f658..0d2f9ed0a6b 100644
--- a/buildscripts/resmokelib/suitesconfig.py
+++ b/buildscripts/resmokelib/suitesconfig.py
@@ -93,6 +93,12 @@ def create_test_membership_map(fail_on_missing_selector=False, test_kind=None):
                 if not fail_on_missing_selector:
                     continue
             raise
+        except KeyError as e:
+            # For example, `test_kind` might be missing from their yaml config
+            loggers.ROOT_EXECUTOR_LOGGER.error(
+                "Error occurred while processing suite '%s': Field %s not found.", suite_name, e
+            )
+            raise
     return test_membership
 
 
diff --git a/buildscripts/tests/resmoke_validation/test_find_suites.py b/buildscripts/tests/resmoke_validation/test_find_suites.py
index f4b278a788e..ef1c2f7e8f9 100644
--- a/buildscripts/tests/resmoke_validation/test_find_suites.py
+++ b/buildscripts/tests/resmoke_validation/test_find_suites.py
@@ -19,7 +19,9 @@ class TestFindSuites(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(
             0,
             resmoke_process.returncode,
-            msg="find-suites subcommand did not execute successfully.",
+            # Give a very verbose failure message - this can be read by users well
+            # outside of resmoke-areas in case of failures on malformatted yaml configs
+            msg=f"find-suites subcommand did not execute successfully:\n\n{resmoke_process.stdout}",
         )
 
         self.assertTrue(resmoke_process.stdout, msg="find-suites output must not be empty")
diff --git a/buildscripts/tests/resmoke_validation/test_suites_configurations.py b/buildscripts/tests/resmoke_validation/test_suites_configurations.py
index 356bdf8cecd..4fcc0caa407 100644
--- a/buildscripts/tests/resmoke_validation/test_suites_configurations.py
+++ b/buildscripts/tests/resmoke_validation/test_suites_configurations.py
@@ -9,8 +9,8 @@ class TestSuitesConfigurations(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_validity_of_resmoke_suites_configurations(self):
         set_run_options("--runAllFeatureFlagTests")
         for suite_name in get_named_suites():
-            suite = get_suite(suite_name)
             try:
+                suite = get_suite(suite_name)
                 suite.tests
             except IOError as err:
                 # We ignore errors from missing files referenced in the test suite's "selector"
@@ -19,5 +19,8 @@ class TestSuitesConfigurations(unittest.TestCase):
                 # associated bazel target hasn't been built yet.
                 if err.filename in config.EXTERNAL_SUITE_SELECTORS:
                     continue
+            except KeyError as e:
+                # For example, `test_kind` might be missing from their yaml config
+                self.fail(f"Error validating `{suite_name}` suite: Field {str(e)} not found.")
             except Exception as ex:
-                self.fail(f"While validating `{suite.get_name()}` suite got an error: {str(ex)}")
+                self.fail(f"Error validating `{suite_name}` suite: {str(ex)}")