diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/Package.py b/lib/spack/spack/Package.py
index e5b2d00943..0455b048c9 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/Package.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/Package.py
@@ -131,6 +131,9 @@ def add_commands_to_module(self):
         self.module.make = MakeExecutable('make', self.parallel)
         self.module.gmake = MakeExecutable('gmake', self.parallel)
 
+        # number of jobs spack prefers to build with.
+        self.module.make_jobs = multiprocessing.cpu_count()
+
         # Find the configure script in the archive path
         # Don't use which for this; we want to find it in the current dir.
         self.module.configure = Executable('./configure')
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/packages/cmake.py b/lib/spack/spack/packages/cmake.py
index 57cb0d9cf9..9b75bd6273 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/packages/cmake.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/packages/cmake.py
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ class Cmake(Package):
     md5       = '097278785da7182ec0aea8769d06860c'
 
     def install(self, prefix):
-        configure('--prefix=%s' % prefix)
+        configure('--prefix=%s'   % prefix,
+                  '--parallel=%s' % make_jobs)
         make()
         make('install')