diff --git a/src/slurmd/slurmd/req.c b/src/slurmd/slurmd/req.c
index b81fbcfc7422bd69a69fd2e900d7b4b4d20e555d..5d4f92acacd757ed766b76e8abb4bf685c3e24b4 100644
--- a/src/slurmd/slurmd/req.c
+++ b/src/slurmd/slurmd/req.c
@@ -3781,6 +3781,7 @@ _build_env(uint32_t jobid, uid_t uid, char *resv_id,
 	if (spank_job_env_size)
 		env_array_merge(&env, (const char **) spank_job_env);
 
+	setenvf(&env, "SLURM_CONF", conf->conffile);
 	setenvf(&env, "SLURM_JOB_ID", "%u", jobid);
 	setenvf(&env, "SLURM_JOB_UID",   "%u", uid);
 	name = uid_to_string(uid);
@@ -3849,9 +3850,6 @@ run_spank_job_script (const char *mode, char **env)
 			(char *) mode,
 			NULL };
 
-		/* Set the correct slurm.conf location */
-		setenvf (&env, "SLURM_CONF", conf->conffile);
-
 		if (dup2 (pfds[0], STDIN_FILENO) < 0)
 			fatal ("dup2: %m");
 #ifdef SETPGRP_TWO_ARGS