Android test orchestrator failing in multi-module project

I followed the documentation for the android test orchestrator and when I apply the following:

androidTestUtil 'androidx.test:orchestrator:1.1.0'

I get the following error

Not all files in androidTestUtil configuration are APKs: ...
Affected Modules: (all the modules in my app are listed here)

Its hard to find the documentation behind androidTestUtil and I am wondering if there any extra steps necessary to make the Android test orchestrator work in my project