diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/irc/irssi/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/irc/irssi/default.nix
index 1ee2446460d3..8dbd2cd73ee4 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/irc/irssi/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/irc/irssi/default.nix
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   nativeBuildInputs = [ pkg-config autoconf automake libtool git ];
   buildInputs = [ ncurses glib openssl perl libintl libgcrypt libotr ];
 
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
   preConfigure = ''
     NOCONFIGURE=1 ./autogen.sh
   '';