diff --git a/src/plugins/mpi/pmix/pmixp_utils.c b/src/plugins/mpi/pmix/pmixp_utils.c
index 433acff7971b6af4347771b2834100af4e7a71be..8b1f1a8b2145c135ff7e10832592bb6c633dd06b 100644
--- a/src/plugins/mpi/pmix/pmixp_utils.c
+++ b/src/plugins/mpi/pmix/pmixp_utils.c
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ int pmixp_stepd_send(char *nodelist, const char *address, char *data,
 {
 
 	int retry = 0, rc;
-	unsigned int delay = 100; /* in milliseconds */
+	unsigned int delay = 500; /* in milliseconds */
 	hostlist_t hl;
 
 	hl = hostlist_create(nodelist);