diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/dn/dnsmasq/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/dn/dnsmasq/package.nix
index b5f4872b0cdb..3b7699cf87c0 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/dn/dnsmasq/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/dn/dnsmasq/package.nix
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     "PKG_CONFIG=${buildPackages.pkg-config}/bin/${buildPackages.pkg-config.targetPrefix}pkg-config"
   ];
 
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
   postBuild = lib.optionalString stdenv.hostPlatform.isLinux ''
     make -C contrib/lease-tools
   '';