diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/math/gmsh/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/math/gmsh/default.nix
index f88e59857aa1..3153c128057a 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/science/math/gmsh/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/math/gmsh/default.nix
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     xorg.libICE
   ];
 
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
   # N.B. the shared object is used by bindings
   cmakeFlags = [
     "-DENABLE_BUILD_SHARED=ON"