diff --git a/cmake/limit_jobs.cmake b/cmake/limit_jobs.cmake
index a51bf55a77..ba3e9ac417 100644
--- a/cmake/limit_jobs.cmake
+++ b/cmake/limit_jobs.cmake
@@ -1,16 +1,36 @@
-set(LINK_MEM_PER_JOB 4096 CACHE INTERNAL "Maximum memory used by each link job in (in MiB)")
+if(NOT DEFINED Scylla_PARALLEL_LINK_JOBS)
+  if(NOT DEFINED Scylla_RAM_PER_LINK_JOB)
+    # preserve user-provided value
+    set(_default_ram_value 4096)
+    if(Scylla_ENABLE_LTO)
+      # When ThinLTO optimization is enabled, the linker uses all available CPU threads.
+      # To prevent excessive memory usage, we limit parallel link jobs based on available RAM,
+      # as each link job requires significant memory during optimization.
+      set(_default_ram_value 16384)
+    endif()
+    set(Scylla_RAM_PER_LINK_JOB ${_default_ram_value} CACHE STRING
+      "Maximum amount of memory used by each link job (in MiB)")
+  endif()
+  cmake_host_system_information(
+    RESULT _total_mem_mb
+    QUERY AVAILABLE_PHYSICAL_MEMORY)
+  math(EXPR _link_pool_depth "${_total_mem_mb} / ${Scylla_RAM_PER_LINK_JOB}")
+  # Use 2 parallel link jobs to optimize build throughput. The main executable requires
+  # LTO (slower link phase) while tests are linked without LTO (faster link phase).
+  # This allows simultaneous linking of LTO and non-LTO targets, enabling better CPU
+  # utilization by overlapping the slower LTO link with faster test links.
+  if(_link_pool_depth LESS 2)
+    set(_link_pool_depth 2)
+  endif()
 
-cmake_host_system_information(
-  RESULT _total_mem
-  QUERY AVAILABLE_PHYSICAL_MEMORY)
-math(EXPR _link_pool_depth "${_total_mem} / ${LINK_MEM_PER_JOB}")
-if(_link_pool_depth EQUAL 0)
-  set(_link_pool_depth 1)
+  set(Scylla_PARALLEL_LINK_JOBS "${_link_pool_depth}" CACHE STRING
+    "Maximum number of concurrent link jobs")
 endif()
+
 set_property(
   GLOBAL
   APPEND
   PROPERTY JOB_POOLS
-    link_pool=${_link_pool_depth}
+    link_pool=${Scylla_PARALLEL_LINK_JOBS}
     submodule_pool=1)
 set(CMAKE_JOB_POOL_LINK link_pool)
diff --git a/configure.py b/configure.py
index 7362df94f5..610ce3dafc 100755
--- a/configure.py
+++ b/configure.py
@@ -1664,7 +1664,14 @@ defines = ' '.join(['-D' + d for d in defines])
 globals().update(vars(args))
 
 total_memory = os.sysconf('SC_PAGE_SIZE') * os.sysconf('SC_PHYS_PAGES')
+# assuming each link job takes around 7GiB of memory without LTO
 link_pool_depth = max(int(total_memory / 7e9), 1)
+if args.lto:
+    # ThinLTO provides its own parallel linking, use 16GiB for RAM size used
+    # by each link job
+    depth_with_lto = max(int(total_memory / 16e9), 2)
+    if depth_with_lto < link_pool_depth:
+        link_pool_depth = depth_with_lto
 
 selected_modes = args.selected_modes or modes.keys()
 default_modes = args.selected_modes or [mode for mode, mode_cfg in modes.items() if mode_cfg["default"]]