diff --git a/.github/workflows/unit_tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/unit_tests.yaml
index d2095258..5cf1a8cc 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/unit_tests.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/unit_tests.yaml
@@ -10,8 +10,6 @@ concurrency:
 jobs:
   ndsl_unit_tests:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    container:
-      image: ghcr.io/noaa-gfdl/miniforge:mpich
     steps:
 
       - name: Checkout repository
@@ -19,6 +17,14 @@ jobs:
         with:
           submodules: 'recursive'
 
+      - name: Setup Python 3.11
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: '3.11'
+
+      - name: Install mpi (MPICH flavor)
+        run: pip3 install mpich
+
       - name: Install Python packages
         run: pip3 install .[test]
 
@@ -26,7 +32,7 @@ jobs:
         run: coverage run --rcfile=pyproject.toml -m pytest tests
 
       - name: Run parallel-cpu tests
-        run: mpiexec -np 6 --oversubscribe coverage run --rcfile=pyproject.toml -m mpi4py -m pytest tests/mpi
+        run: mpiexec -np 6 coverage run --rcfile=pyproject.toml -m mpi4py -m pytest tests/mpi
 
       - name: Output code coverage
         run: |
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index afa96925..6898794e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ def local_pkg(name: str, relative_path: str) -> str:
 requirements: list[str] = [
     local_pkg("gt4py", "external/gt4py"),
     local_pkg("dace", "external/dace"),
-    "mpi4py==3.1.5",
+    "mpi4py>=4.1",
     "cftime",
     "xarray>=2025.01.2",  # datatree + fixes
     "f90nml>=1.1.0",