diff --git a/.github/workflows/velox_backend.yml b/.github/workflows/velox_backend.yml
index 239cefa3fdae..49e74c9660b1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/velox_backend.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/velox_backend.yml
@@ -268,14 +268,18 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           sudo apt-get update
           sudo apt-get install -y openjdk-8-jdk maven
+      - name: Set environment variables
+        run: |
+          echo "JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64" >> $GITHUB_ENV
+      - name: Build for Spark ${{ matrix.spark }}
+        run: |
+          cd $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/ 
+          $MVN_CMD clean install -P${{ matrix.spark }} -Pbackends-velox -DskipTests
+          cd $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/tools/gluten-it
+          $MVN_CMD clean install -P${{ matrix.spark }}
       - name: Build and run TPC-H / TPC-DS
         run: |
-          cd $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/
-          export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/${{ matrix.java }}-openjdk-amd64
-          echo "JAVA_HOME: $JAVA_HOME"
-          $MVN_CMD clean install -P${{ matrix.spark }} -P${{ matrix.java }} -Pbackends-velox -DskipTests
           cd $GITHUB_WORKSPACE/tools/gluten-it
-          $MVN_CMD clean install -P${{ matrix.spark }} -P${{ matrix.java }}
           GLUTEN_IT_JVM_ARGS=-Xmx5G sbin/gluten-it.sh queries-compare \
             --local --preset=velox --benchmark-type=h --error-on-memleak --off-heap-size=10g -s=1.0 --threads=16 --iterations=1 \
             --extra-conf=spark.gluten.sql.columnar.backend.velox.IOThreads=16