diff --git a/build/mvn b/build/mvn
index 9015b5230..37edd5bb2 100755
--- a/build/mvn
+++ b/build/mvn
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@
 _DIR="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" && pwd )"
 # Preserve the calling directory
 _CALLING_DIR="$(pwd)"
+# Options used during compilation
+_COMPILE_JVM_OPTS="-Xms2g -Xmx2g -Xss8m -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=512m"
 
 if [ "$CI" ]; then
   export MAVEN_CLI_OPTS="--batch-mode --no-transfer-progress --errors --fail-fast"
@@ -108,5 +110,9 @@ install_scala
 install_mvn
 
 cd "${_CALLING_DIR}"
+
+# Set any `mvn` options if not already present
+export MAVEN_OPTS=${MAVEN_OPTS:-"$_COMPILE_JVM_OPTS"}
+
 echo "Using \`mvn\` from path: $MVN_BIN" 1>&2
 ${MVN_BIN} $MAVEN_CLI_OPTS "$@"
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 0c7a13cb8..52ce8a303 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -1315,7 +1315,6 @@
                         <reportsDirectory>${project.build.directory}/surefire-reports</reportsDirectory>
                         <junitxml>.</junitxml>
                         <filereports>TestSuite.txt</filereports>
-                        <argLine>-Xmx2g -Xms2g -Xss8m -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=512M</argLine>
                         <environmentVariables>
                             <KYUUBI_WORK_DIR_ROOT>${project.build.directory}/work</KYUUBI_WORK_DIR_ROOT>
                         </environmentVariables>