diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 4de41bba..6d8ec86e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -77,14 +77,13 @@ jobs:
           echo "Installing additional pip packages"
           # we install ctapipe using pip to be able to select any commit, e.g. the current main
           pip install \
-             "git+https://github.com/cta-observatory/ctapipe@$CTAPIPE_VERSION" \
-              pytest-cov
+             "git+https://github.com/cta-observatory/ctapipe@$CTAPIPE_VERSION"
 
           echo "pip install -e ."
-          pip install -e .
+          pip install -e .[test]
 
       - name: Tests
         run: |
-          pytest --cov=nectarchain --cov-report=xml
+          pytest -n auto --dist loadscope --cov=nectarchain --cov-report=xml
 
       - uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 4286470f..c0833017 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ dynamic = ["version"]
 test = [
     "pytest",
     "pytest-cov",
+    "pytest-xdist",
 ]
 dev = [
     "setuptools_scm",