diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/bl/blis/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/bl/blis/package.nix
index 1edd86ae85c7..43b1e17c59ed 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/bl/blis/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/bl/blis/package.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,12 @@
   perl,
   python3,
 
+  # sets BLIS_NUM_THREADS and OMP_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking blis during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://github.com/flame/blis/blob/b8b75b4e19459f5d618b57aa814ca38b1d82eb82/docs/Multithreading.md#specifying-multithreading
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
+
   # Enable BLAS interface with 64-bit integer width.
   blas64 ? false,
 
@@ -36,6 +42,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     python3
   ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
   doCheck = true;
 
   enableParallelBuilding = true;
diff --git a/pkgs/by-name/mk/mkl/package.nix b/pkgs/by-name/mk/mkl/package.nix
index f9e1dda4e7ab..31b724759e8a 100644
--- a/pkgs/by-name/mk/mkl/package.nix
+++ b/pkgs/by-name/mk/mkl/package.nix
@@ -8,6 +8,11 @@
   _7zz,
   cctools,
   validatePkgConfig,
+  # sets MKL_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking mkl during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/onemkl/developer-guide-linux/2023-0/mkl-domain-num-threads.html
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
   enableStatic ? stdenv.hostPlatform.isStatic,
 }:
 
@@ -86,6 +91,10 @@ stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation (
         [ rpmextract ]
     );
 
+    propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+      checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+    ];
+
     buildPhase =
       if stdenvNoCC.hostPlatform.isDarwin then
         ''
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openblas/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openblas/default.nix
index 97b7596b937c..ee5e6f12caa8 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openblas/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/openblas/default.nix
@@ -4,6 +4,11 @@
   fetchFromGitHub,
   fetchpatch,
   cmake,
+  # sets OPENBLAS_NUM_THREADS and OMP_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking openblas during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://github.com/OpenMathLib/OpenBLAS/blob/e7b45174355edec1f04de1cabcf5ca6a98ea7fbc/USAGE.md#how-can-i-use-openblas-in-multi-threaded-applications
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
   # Most packages depending on openblas expect integer width to match
   # pointer width, but some expect to use 32-bit integers always
   # (for compatibility with reference BLAS).
@@ -232,6 +237,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (finalAttrs: {
     cmake
   ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
   buildInputs = lib.optional (stdenv.cc.isClang && config.USE_OPENMP) openmp;
 
   depsBuildBuild = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/joblib/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/joblib/default.nix
index 2474439fc910..b4b9c7bf2217 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/joblib/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/joblib/default.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,14 @@
   pythonAtLeast,
   stdenv,
 
+  # sets various thread limit env vars for packages
+  # invoking joblib during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also:
+  # https://github.com/joblib/joblib/blob/b030e4e1ed6a227c0e587c31b266c03b3b692372/joblib/_parallel_backends.py#L59-L67
+  # https://github.com/joblib/joblib/blob/b030e4e1ed6a227c0e587c31b266c03b3b692372/joblib/_parallel_backends.py#L221-L248
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
+
   # build-system
   setuptools,
 
@@ -40,6 +48,14 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     threadpoolctl
   ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
+  # joblib expects to set thread limits itself while checking for propagation of thread limit environment variables.
+  # Setting these via checkPhaseThreadLimitHook on joblib itself causes tests to fail, but we do want the hook to propagate.
+  dontLimitCheckPhaseThreads = true;
+
   enabledTestPaths = [ "joblib/test" ];
 
   disabledTests = [
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numba/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numba/default.nix
index 11c25c98168d..7c215cdb4aaf 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numba/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numba/default.nix
@@ -8,6 +8,12 @@
   # nativeBuildInputs
   setuptools,
 
+  # sets NUMBA_NUM_THREADS and OMP_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking numba during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://numba.readthedocs.io/en/stable/reference/envvars.html#threading-control
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
+
   # dependencies
   llvmlite,
   numpy,
@@ -104,6 +110,10 @@ buildPythonPackage (finalAttrs: {
     writableTmpDirAsHomeHook
   ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
   # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/255262
   preCheck = ''
     cd $out
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numexpr/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numexpr/default.nix
index f4b552c108ec..426b53e7814d 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/numexpr/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/numexpr/default.nix
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@
   numpy,
   pytestCheckHook,
   setuptools,
+  # sets NUMEXPR_NUM_THREADS and OMP_NUM_THREADS for packages
+  # invoking numexpr during checkPhase/installCheckPhase to
+  # avoid overloading builders with excessive parallelism
+  # See also: https://numexpr.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide.html#threadpool-configuration
+  checkPhaseThreadLimitHook,
 }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
@@ -31,6 +36,10 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
 
   nativeCheckInputs = [ pytestCheckHook ];
 
+  propagatedNativeBuildInputs = [
+    checkPhaseThreadLimitHook
+  ];
+
   preCheck = ''
     pushd $out
   '';