How do I start a screen session using an upstart job with a non privileged user?

I am trying to create an Upstart job that starts a new screen session on boot, in which I would like to automatically start a java executable. Here is the .conf file I am currently trying to get to work, although I have tried several others: description "Run the bungeecord jar" start on (local-filesystems and net-device-up IFACE=eth0 and runlevel ) stop on runlevel exec start-stop-daemon --start -c ridog --exec /usr/bin/screen -- -dmUS BungeeCord java -server -XX:UseSSE=4 -XX:+UseCMSCompactAtFullCollection -XX:MaxPermSize=356m -XX:ParallelGCThreads=6 -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+DisableExplicitGC -XX:+CMSIncrementalMode -XX:+CMSIncrementalPacing -XX:+UseCompressedOops -XX:+AggressiveOpts -Xmx256M -jar BungeeCord.jar pre-stop script screen -S BungeeCord -X foo "end^M" end script To my knowledge, the script seems to work fine, I can run sudo start bungeecord and get the intended result, however, restarting the machine does not work. Instead, I get this error in the /var/log/upstart/bungeecord.log: Cannot make directory '/var/run/screen': Permission denied I've looked up this error and the search results are obscure and inconclusive. I've tried running the command as root, this removes the error but still no screen session. I've tried different commands like this: su ridog -c "screen -dmS BungeeCord java -jar /home/ridog/BungeeCord/BungeeCord.jar"