diff --git a/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/SparkSQLProperties.java b/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/SparkSQLProperties.java
index 5b009c65b7aa..65c90b1818e1 100644
--- a/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/SparkSQLProperties.java
+++ b/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/SparkSQLProperties.java
@@ -47,4 +47,9 @@ private SparkSQLProperties() {}
   public static final String PRESERVE_DATA_GROUPING =
       "spark.sql.iceberg.planning.preserve-data-grouping";
   public static final boolean PRESERVE_DATA_GROUPING_DEFAULT = false;
+
+  // Controls how many physical file deletes to execute in parallel when not otherwise specified
+  public static final String DELETE_PARALLELISM =
+      "spark.sql.iceberg.driver-delete-default-parallelism";
+  public static final int DELETE_PARALLELISM_DEFAULT = 25;
 }
diff --git a/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/actions/BaseSparkAction.java b/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/actions/BaseSparkAction.java
index cdd80040fa9e..f8ba824946a1 100644
--- a/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/actions/BaseSparkAction.java
+++ b/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/actions/BaseSparkAction.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 import static org.apache.spark.sql.functions.col;
 import static org.apache.spark.sql.functions.lit;
 
+import java.util.Collections;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -56,9 +57,12 @@
 import org.apache.iceberg.relocated.com.google.common.collect.Maps;
 import org.apache.iceberg.spark.JobGroupInfo;
 import org.apache.iceberg.spark.JobGroupUtils;
+import org.apache.iceberg.spark.SparkSQLProperties;
 import org.apache.iceberg.spark.SparkTableUtil;
 import org.apache.iceberg.spark.source.SerializableTableWithSize;
+import org.apache.iceberg.util.PropertyUtil;
 import org.apache.iceberg.util.Tasks;
+import org.apache.iceberg.util.ThreadPools;
 import org.apache.spark.SparkContext;
 import org.apache.spark.api.java.JavaSparkContext;
 import org.apache.spark.api.java.function.FlatMapFunction;
@@ -69,6 +73,7 @@
 import org.apache.spark.sql.SparkSession;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
 import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+import scala.collection.JavaConverters;
 
 abstract class BaseSparkAction<ThisT> {
 
@@ -218,6 +223,31 @@ private Dataset<FileInfo> toFileInfoDS(List<String> paths, String type) {
     return spark.createDataset(fileInfoList, FileInfo.ENCODER);
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Uses a fixed thread pool with {@link SparkSQLProperties#DELETE_PARALLELISM} when the
+   * executorService passed to this function is null.
+   */
+  protected void withDefaultDeleteService(
+      ExecutorService executorService, Consumer<ExecutorService> func) {
+    ExecutorService deleteService = executorService;
+
+    boolean createdDefaultDeleteService = false;
+    if (deleteService == null) {
+      int numThreads = PropertyUtil.propertyAsInt(
+              JavaConverters.mapAsJavaMap(spark.conf().getAll()),
+              SparkSQLProperties.DELETE_PARALLELISM,
+              SparkSQLProperties.DELETE_PARALLELISM_DEFAULT);
+      deleteService = ThreadPools.newWorkerPool(this + "-default-delete-service", numThreads);
+      createdDefaultDeleteService = true;
+    }
+
+    func.accept(deleteService);
+
+    if (createdDefaultDeleteService) {
+      deleteService.shutdown();
+    }
+  }
+
   /**
    * Deletes files and keeps track of how many files were removed for each file type.
    *
@@ -231,24 +261,28 @@ protected DeleteSummary deleteFiles(
 
     DeleteSummary summary = new DeleteSummary();
 
-    Tasks.foreach(files)
-        .retry(DELETE_NUM_RETRIES)
-        .stopRetryOn(NotFoundException.class)
-        .suppressFailureWhenFinished()
-        .executeWith(executorService)
-        .onFailure(
-            (fileInfo, exc) -> {
-              String path = fileInfo.getPath();
-              String type = fileInfo.getType();
-              LOG.warn("Delete failed for {}: {}", type, path, exc);
-            })
-        .run(
-            fileInfo -> {
-              String path = fileInfo.getPath();
-              String type = fileInfo.getType();
-              deleteFunc.accept(path);
-              summary.deletedFile(path, type);
-            });
+    withDefaultDeleteService(
+        executorService,
+        (deleteService) -> {
+          Tasks.foreach(files)
+              .retry(DELETE_NUM_RETRIES)
+              .stopRetryOn(NotFoundException.class)
+              .suppressFailureWhenFinished()
+              .executeWith(deleteService)
+              .onFailure(
+                  (fileInfo, exc) -> {
+                    String path = fileInfo.getPath();
+                    String type = fileInfo.getType();
+                    LOG.warn("Delete failed for {}: {}", type, path, exc);
+                  })
+              .run(
+                  fileInfo -> {
+                    String path = fileInfo.getPath();
+                    String type = fileInfo.getType();
+                    deleteFunc.accept(path);
+                    summary.deletedFile(path, type);
+                  });
+        });
 
     return summary;
   }
diff --git a/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/actions/DeleteOrphanFilesSparkAction.java b/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/actions/DeleteOrphanFilesSparkAction.java
index 1abd2107ed7f..ac227581ba47 100644
--- a/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/actions/DeleteOrphanFilesSparkAction.java
+++ b/spark/v3.3/spark/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/spark/actions/DeleteOrphanFilesSparkAction.java
@@ -246,12 +246,15 @@ private DeleteOrphanFiles.Result doExecute() {
     List<String> orphanFiles =
         findOrphanFiles(spark(), actualFileIdentDS, validFileIdentDS, prefixMismatchMode);
 
-    Tasks.foreach(orphanFiles)
-        .noRetry()
-        .executeWith(deleteExecutorService)
-        .suppressFailureWhenFinished()
-        .onFailure((file, exc) -> LOG.warn("Failed to delete file: {}", file, exc))
-        .run(deleteFunc::accept);
+    withDefaultDeleteService(
+        deleteExecutorService,
+        deleteService ->
+            Tasks.foreach(orphanFiles)
+                .noRetry()
+                .executeWith(deleteService)
+                .suppressFailureWhenFinished()
+                .onFailure((file, exc) -> LOG.warn("Failed to delete file: {}", file, exc))
+                .run(deleteFunc::accept));
 
     return new BaseDeleteOrphanFilesActionResult(orphanFiles);
   }