diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.d/crossbuild-template.yml b/.gitlab-ci.d/crossbuild-template.yml
index 2ce0432eb7..d1cb7a35db 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.d/crossbuild-template.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.d/crossbuild-template.yml
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
     when: always
   timeout: 80m
   before_script:
+    - JOBS=$(expr $(nproc) + 1)
     - cat /packages.txt
   script:
     - export CCACHE_BASEDIR="$(pwd)"
@@ -24,7 +25,11 @@
           i386-softmmu microblaze-softmmu mips-softmmu mipsel-softmmu
           mips64-softmmu ppc-softmmu riscv32-softmmu sh4-softmmu
           sparc-softmmu xtensa-softmmu $CROSS_SKIP_TARGETS"
-    - make -j$(expr $(nproc) + 1) all check-build $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS
+    - make -j"$JOBS" all check-build
+    - if test -n "$MAKE_CHECK_ARGS";
+      then
+        $MAKE -j"$JOBS" $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS ;
+      fi
     - if grep -q "EXESUF=.exe" config-host.mak;
       then make installer;
       version="$(git describe --match v[0-9]* 2>/dev/null || git rev-parse --short HEAD)";
@@ -46,6 +51,8 @@
     paths:
       - ccache/
     key: "$CI_JOB_NAME"
+  before_script:
+    - JOBS=$(expr $(nproc) + 1)
   script:
     - export CCACHE_BASEDIR="$(pwd)"
     - export CCACHE_DIR="$CCACHE_BASEDIR/ccache"
@@ -55,7 +62,11 @@
     - cd build
     - ../configure --enable-werror --disable-docs $QEMU_CONFIGURE_OPTS
         --disable-tools --enable-${ACCEL:-kvm} $EXTRA_CONFIGURE_OPTS
-    - make -j$(expr $(nproc) + 1) all check-build $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS
+    - make -j"$JOBS" all check-build
+    - if test -n "$MAKE_CHECK_ARGS";
+      then
+        $MAKE -j"$JOBS" $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS ;
+      fi
 
 .cross_user_build_job:
   extends: .base_job_template
@@ -65,6 +76,8 @@
     paths:
       - ccache/
     key: "$CI_JOB_NAME"
+  before_script:
+    - JOBS=$(expr $(nproc) + 1)
   script:
     - export CCACHE_BASEDIR="$(pwd)"
     - export CCACHE_DIR="$CCACHE_BASEDIR/ccache"
@@ -76,7 +89,11 @@
           alpha-linux-user m68k-linux-user microblazeel-linux-user
           or1k-linux-user ppc-linux-user sparc-linux-user
           xtensa-linux-user $CROSS_SKIP_TARGETS"
-    - make -j$(expr $(nproc) + 1) all check-build $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS
+    - make -j"$JOBS" all check-build
+    - if test -n "$MAKE_CHECK_ARGS";
+      then
+        $MAKE -j"$JOBS" $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS ;
+      fi
 
 # We can still run some tests on some of our cross build jobs. They can add this
 # template to their extends to save the build logs and test results