diff --git a/pkgs/servers/nosql/mongodb/default.nix b/pkgs/servers/nosql/mongodb/default.nix
index 99cf6cd97572..303159cb7f4b 100644
--- a/pkgs/servers/nosql/mongodb/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/servers/nosql/mongodb/default.nix
@@ -49,14 +49,16 @@ in stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   '';
 
   buildPhase = ''
-    scons core --release ${other-args}
+    scons -j $NIX_BUILD_CORES core --release ${other-args}
   '';
 
   installPhase = ''
     mkdir -p $out/lib
-    scons install --release --prefix=$out ${other-args}
+    scons -j $NIX_BUILD_CORES install --release --prefix=$out ${other-args}
   '';
 
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
   meta = {
     description = "a scalable, high-performance, open source NoSQL database";
     homepage = http://www.mongodb.org;