diff --git a/core/setup.py b/core/setup.py
index 27f99082d1..14324ef152 100755
--- a/core/setup.py
+++ b/core/setup.py
@@ -94,7 +94,8 @@ def build_extension(self, ext):
         else:
             cmake_args += ['-DCMAKE_CXX_FLAGS="-Wno-pedantic"']
             cmake_args += ["-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=" + cfg]
-            build_args += ["--", "-j4"]
+            jobs = os.environ.get("MAX_JOBS", "4")
+            build_args += ["--", f"-j{jobs}"]
 
         env = os.environ.copy()
 
diff --git a/docs/source/developer_guide/developer_guide_installation.rst b/docs/source/developer_guide/developer_guide_installation.rst
index 5e92e49a01..5f6305ede6 100644
--- a/docs/source/developer_guide/developer_guide_installation.rst
+++ b/docs/source/developer_guide/developer_guide_installation.rst
@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ Once it is done, you can compile ``opengate_core``.
    pip install colored
    cd <path-to-opengate>/core
    export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<path-to>/geant4.11-build/:<path-to>/itk-build/:${CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH}
+   export MAX_JOBS=$(nproc)  # optional environment variable to set the number of parallel jobs for compilation
    pip install -e . -v
 
 The pip install will run cmake, compile the sources and create the