diff --git a/.circleci/do-rtl-build.sh b/.circleci/do-rtl-build.sh
index 3a5d56ca..95f3c903 100755
--- a/.circleci/do-rtl-build.sh
+++ b/.circleci/do-rtl-build.sh
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ do
          export PATH=\"$REMOTE_VERILATOR_DIR/bin:\$PATH\"; \
          export VERILATOR_ROOT=\"$REMOTE_VERILATOR_DIR\"; \
          export COURSIER_CACHE=\"$REMOTE_WORK_DIR/.coursier-cache\"; \
-         make -j$REMOTE_MAKE_NPROC -C $REMOTE_MAKE_DIR FIRRTL_LOGLEVEL=info JAVA_OPTS=\"$REMOTE_JAVA_OPTS\" SBT_OPTS=\"$REMOTE_SBT_OPTS\" ${mapping[$key]}"
+         make -j$REMOTE_MAKE_NPROC -C $REMOTE_MAKE_DIR FIRRTL_LOGLEVEL=info JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=\"$REMOTE_JAVA_OPTS\" SBT_OPTS=\"$REMOTE_SBT_OPTS\" ${mapping[$key]}"
 done
 
 run "rm -rf $REMOTE_CHIPYARD_DIR/project"
diff --git a/.circleci/run-firesim-scala-tests.sh b/.circleci/run-firesim-scala-tests.sh
index a848df62..0a74adb8 100755
--- a/.circleci/run-firesim-scala-tests.sh
+++ b/.circleci/run-firesim-scala-tests.sh
@@ -59,4 +59,4 @@ run "export RISCV=\"$TOOLS_DIR\"; \
      export PATH=\"$REMOTE_VERILATOR_DIR/bin:\$PATH\"; \
      export VERILATOR_ROOT=\"$REMOTE_VERILATOR_DIR\"; \
      export COURSIER_CACHE=\"$REMOTE_WORK_DIR/.coursier-cache\"; \
-     make -C $REMOTE_FIRESIM_DIR JAVA_OPTS=\"$REMOTE_JAVA_OPTS\" SBT_OPTS=\"$REMOTE_SBT_OPTS\" testOnly ${mapping[$1]}"
+     make -C $REMOTE_FIRESIM_DIR JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=\"$REMOTE_JAVA_OPTS\" SBT_OPTS=\"$REMOTE_SBT_OPTS\" testOnly ${mapping[$1]}"
diff --git a/variables.mk b/variables.mk
index 5d136e80..1279c28e 100644
--- a/variables.mk
+++ b/variables.mk
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ sim_common_files       ?= $(build_dir)/sim_files.common.f
 # java arguments used in sbt
 #########################################################################################
 JAVA_HEAP_SIZE ?= 8G
-JAVA_OPTS ?= -Xmx$(JAVA_HEAP_SIZE) -Xss8M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Djava.io.tmpdir=$(base_dir)/.java_tmp
+export JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS ?= -Xmx$(JAVA_HEAP_SIZE) -Xss8M -XX:MaxPermSize=256M -Djava.io.tmpdir=$(base_dir)/.java_tmp
 
 #########################################################################################
 # default sbt launch command
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ override SCALA_BUILDTOOL_DEPS += $(SBT_THIN_CLIENT_TIMESTAMP)
 SBT_CLIENT_FLAG = --client
 endif
 
-SBT ?= java $(JAVA_OPTS) -jar $(ROCKETCHIP_DIR)/sbt-launch.jar $(SBT_OPTS) $(SBT_CLIENT_FLAG)
+SBT ?= java $(JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS) -jar $(ROCKETCHIP_DIR)/sbt-launch.jar $(SBT_OPTS) $(SBT_CLIENT_FLAG)
 SBT_NON_THIN ?= $(subst $(SBT_CLIENT_FLAG),,$(SBT))
 
 define run_scala_main