diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index bd036315af..1dedf330e4 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@ export DH_OPTIONS
 
 export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
 
+ifneq (,$(filter parallel=%,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
+	MAKE_JOBS = $(patsubst parallel=%,%,$(filter parallel=%,$(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
+else
+	MAKE_JOBS = 1
+endif
 %:
 	dh $@ --with python3 --buildsystem cmake --with quilt --parallel
 
@@ -29,14 +34,14 @@ override_dh_auto_configure:
 override_dh_auto_build:
 	# Ignore warnings from asn2wrs.py about duplicate field names.
 	PYTHONWARNINGS='ignore:The same:UserWarning::0' \
-	$(MAKE) -C $(CURDIR)/obj-* asn1
+	$(MAKE) -C $(CURDIR)/obj-* -j$(MAKE_JOBS) asn1
 	dh_auto_build
-	$(MAKE) -C $(CURDIR)/obj-* user_guide_html developer_guide_html
+	$(MAKE) -C $(CURDIR)/obj-* -j$(MAKE_JOBS) user_guide_html developer_guide_html
 	# fix links in documentation
 	sed -i "s|$(CURDIR)/docbook|..|" obj-*/docbook/ws*g_html_chunked/*.html
 ifneq ($(filter $(DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS),nocheck),)
 	# Required for the "unittests" suite.
-	$(MAKE) -C $(CURDIR)/obj-* test-programs
+	$(MAKE) -C $(CURDIR)/obj-* -j$(MAKE_JOBS) test-programs
 endif
 
 override_dh_strip: