diff --git a/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml b/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml
index daaf6abb5..9da99e864 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/pipeline.yml
@@ -131,30 +131,15 @@ jobs:
         uses: actions/checkout@v7
 
       - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
-        id: setup-go
         with:
           go-version-file: go.mod
 
       - name: Download dependencies
         run: go mod download
 
-      # Without this, the plugins suite recompiles every test plugin WASM module,
-      # which dominates the job runtime under -race.
-      - name: Cache the plugins test suite WASM compilation cache
-        uses: actions/cache@v6
-        with:
-          path: plugins/testdata/.wazero-cache
-          key: wazero-${{ runner.os }}-go${{ steps.setup-go.outputs.go-version }}-${{ hashFiles('plugins/testdata/*/*.go', 'plugins/testdata/*/go.*', 'plugins/pdk/go/**/*.go', 'plugins/pdk/go/go.*') }}
-          restore-keys: wazero-${{ runner.os }}-
-
       - name: Test
         run: go test -shuffle=on -tags netgo,sqlite_fts5 -race -v $(go list ./... | grep -v '/plugins$')
 
-      # Run separately: this suite is long enough that splitting it across
-      # processes beats running it alongside the other packages.
-      - name: Test plugins
-        run: go tool ginkgo -p -race -tags netgo,sqlite_fts5 ./plugins/
-
       - name: Test ndpgen
         run: |
           cd plugins/cmd/ndpgen
@@ -162,6 +147,30 @@ jobs:
           go build -o ndpgen .
           ./ndpgen --help
 
+  go-plugins:
+    name: Test Go plugins
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Check out code into the Go module directory
+        uses: actions/checkout@v7
+
+      - uses: actions/setup-go@v6
+        id: setup-go
+        with:
+          go-version-file: go.mod
+
+      # Without this, the suite recompiles every test plugin WASM module,
+      # which dominates its runtime under -race.
+      - name: Cache the WASM compilation cache
+        uses: actions/cache@v6
+        with:
+          path: plugins/testdata/.wazero-cache
+          key: wazero-${{ runner.os }}-go${{ steps.setup-go.outputs.go-version }}-${{ hashFiles('plugins/testdata/*/*.go', 'plugins/testdata/*/go.*', 'plugins/pdk/go/**/*.go', 'plugins/pdk/go/go.*') }}
+          restore-keys: wazero-${{ runner.os }}-
+
+      - name: Test plugins
+        run: go tool ginkgo -p -race -tags netgo,sqlite_fts5 ./plugins/
+
   go-windows:
     name: Test Go code (Windows)
     runs-on: windows-2022
@@ -299,7 +308,7 @@ jobs:
 
   build:
     name: Build
-    needs: [js, go, go-windows, go-lint, i18n-lint, git-version, check-push-enabled, validate-migrations]
+    needs: [js, go, go-plugins, go-windows, go-lint, i18n-lint, git-version, check-push-enabled, validate-migrations]
     strategy:
       matrix:
         platform: [ linux/amd64, linux/arm64, linux/arm/v5, linux/arm/v6, linux/arm/v7, linux/386, linux/riscv64, darwin/amd64, darwin/arm64, windows/amd64, windows/386 ]