diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 7436698c8068..688941ae9d9b 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ commands:
               export RELEASE_TAG='-t release'
             fi
             mkdir -p logs
-            make html O="-T $RELEASE_TAG -j1 -w /tmp/sphinxerrorswarnings.log"
+            make html O="-T $RELEASE_TAG -j4 -w /tmp/sphinxerrorswarnings.log"
             rm -r build/html/_sources
           working_directory: doc
       - save_cache:
diff --git a/doc/conf.py b/doc/conf.py
index 1e6b3aefb5c5..6e736e16844f 100644
--- a/doc/conf.py
+++ b/doc/conf.py
@@ -286,6 +286,11 @@ def tutorials_download_error(record):
     'copyfile_regex': r'.*\.rst',
 }
 
+if parse_version(sphinx_gallery.__version__) >= parse_version('0.17.0'):
+    sphinx_gallery_conf['parallel'] = True
+    # Any warnings from joblib turned into errors may cause a deadlock.
+    warnings.filterwarnings('default', category=UserWarning, module='joblib')
+
 if 'plot_gallery=0' in sys.argv:
     # Gallery images are not created.  Suppress warnings triggered where other
     # parts of the documentation link to these images.
diff --git a/requirements/doc/doc-requirements.txt b/requirements/doc/doc-requirements.txt
index cee389da9e94..0666af1d49e8 100644
--- a/requirements/doc/doc-requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements/doc/doc-requirements.txt
@@ -20,5 +20,5 @@ pyyaml
 sphinxcontrib-svg2pdfconverter>=1.1.0
 sphinx-copybutton
 sphinx-design
-sphinx-gallery>=0.12.0
+sphinx-gallery[parallel]>=0.12.0
 sphinx-tags>=0.4.0