diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-scipy/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-scipy/package.py
index 36e84550ba3..c1ad924907c 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-scipy/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-scipy/package.py
@@ -241,6 +241,7 @@ def install(self, spec, prefix):
             "-Cbuilddir=build",
             "--no-isolation",
             "--skip-dependency-check",
+            "-Ccompile-args=-j%s" % make_jobs,
             ".",
         ]
         python(*args)