diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index 5a165747..efca744b 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 pytest==3.2.1
 pytest-cov==2.5.1
 testfixtures
+pytest-xdist==1.23.2
 mock==2.0.0
 
 # Formatting
diff --git a/tests/unit/conftest.py b/tests/unit/conftest.py
index 6dab893e..846e51a5 100644
--- a/tests/unit/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/unit/conftest.py
@@ -12,13 +12,14 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
+import atexit
 import copy
-
 import os
-import pytest
 import shutil
 import tempfile
 
+import pytest
+
 from pegleg import config
 """Fixtures that are applied to all unit tests."""
 
@@ -35,7 +36,10 @@ def restore_config():
         config.GLOBAL_CONTEXT = original_global_context
 
 
-@pytest.fixture(scope="module", autouse=True)
+# NOTE(felipemonteiro): This uses `atexit` rather than a `pytest.fixture`
+# decorator because 1) this only needs to be run exactly once and 2) this
+# works across multiple test executors via `pytest -n <num_cores>`
+@atexit.register
 def clean_temporary_git_repos():
     """Iterates through all temporarily created directories and deletes each
     one that was created for testing.
@@ -51,8 +55,5 @@ def clean_temporary_git_repos():
                 if any(p.startswith('airship') for p in os.listdir(path)):
                     yield path
 
-    try:
-        yield
-    finally:
-        for tempdir in temporary_git_repos():
-            shutil.rmtree(tempdir, ignore_errors=True)
+    for tempdir in temporary_git_repos():
+        shutil.rmtree(tempdir, ignore_errors=True)
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_utils.py b/tests/unit/test_utils.py
index 67438683..d8e28302 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_utils.py
@@ -55,11 +55,14 @@ def is_connected():
 
     :returns: True if connected else False.
     """
-    try:
-        r = requests.get("http://www.github.com/", proxies={}, timeout=3)
-        return r.ok
-    except requests.exceptions.RequestException:
-        return False
+    for _ in range(3):
+        try:
+            r = requests.get("http://www.github.com/", proxies={}, timeout=3)
+            r.raise_for_status()
+            return True
+        except requests.exceptions.RequestException:
+            pass
+    return False
 
 
 def is_connected_behind_proxy():
@@ -67,9 +70,12 @@ def is_connected_behind_proxy():
 
     :returns: True if connected else False.
     """
-    try:
-        r = requests.get(
-            "http://www.github.com/", proxies=_PROXY_SERVERS, timeout=3)
-        return r.ok
-    except requests.exceptions.RequestException:
-        return False
+    for _ in range(3):
+        try:
+            r = requests.get(
+                "http://www.github.com/", proxies=_PROXY_SERVERS, timeout=3)
+            r.raise_for_status()
+            return True
+        except requests.exceptions.RequestException:
+            pass
+    return False
diff --git a/tools/gate/run-unit-tests.sh b/tools/gate/run-unit-tests.sh
index 15042fe8..61fbf44f 100755
--- a/tools/gate/run-unit-tests.sh
+++ b/tools/gate/run-unit-tests.sh
@@ -2,9 +2,11 @@
 
 set -e
 posargs=$@
+# cross-platform way to derive the number of logical cores
+readonly num_cores=$(python -c 'import multiprocessing as mp; print(mp.cpu_count())')
 if [ ${#posargs} -ge 1 ]; then
-    pytest -k  ${posargs}
+    pytest -k ${posargs} -n $num_cores
 else
-    pytest
+    pytest -n $num_cores
 fi
 set +e