diff --git a/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/emitter/rest_emitter.py b/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/emitter/rest_emitter.py
index 2360c1c66f4ca7..21abdd80d9c77b 100644
--- a/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/emitter/rest_emitter.py
+++ b/metadata-ingestion/src/datahub/emitter/rest_emitter.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import functools
 import json
 import logging
+import os
 from json.decoder import JSONDecodeError
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple, Union
 
@@ -35,7 +36,9 @@ class DataHubRestEmitter:
         504,
     ]
     DEFAULT_RETRY_METHODS = ["HEAD", "GET", "POST", "PUT", "DELETE", "OPTIONS", "TRACE"]
-    DEFAULT_RETRY_MAX_TIMES = 3
+    DEFAULT_RETRY_MAX_TIMES = int(
+        os.getenv("DATAHUB_REST_EMITTER_DEFAULT_RETRY_MAX_TIMES", "3")
+    )
 
     _gms_server: str
     _token: Optional[str]
diff --git a/metadata-ingestion/tests/conftest.py b/metadata-ingestion/tests/conftest.py
index 800232c921c640..0390547800b765 100644
--- a/metadata-ingestion/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/metadata-ingestion/tests/conftest.py
@@ -4,8 +4,21 @@
 
 import pytest
 
-from tests.test_helpers.docker_helpers import docker_compose_runner  # noqa: F401
-from tests.test_helpers.state_helpers import mock_datahub_graph  # noqa: F401
+# Enable debug logging.
+logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
+os.environ["DATAHUB_DEBUG"] = "1"
+
+# Disable telemetry
+os.environ["DATAHUB_TELEMETRY_ENABLED"] = "false"
+
+# Reduce retries on GMS, because this causes tests to hang while sleeping
+# between retries.
+os.environ["DATAHUB_REST_EMITTER_DEFAULT_RETRY_MAX_TIMES"] = "1"
+
+# We need our imports to go below the os.environ updates, since mere act
+# of importing some datahub modules will load env variables.
+from tests.test_helpers.docker_helpers import docker_compose_runner  # noqa: F401,E402
+from tests.test_helpers.state_helpers import mock_datahub_graph  # noqa: F401,E402
 
 try:
     # See https://github.com/spulec/freezegun/issues/98#issuecomment-590553475.
@@ -13,13 +26,6 @@
 except ImportError:
     pass
 
-# Enable debug logging.
-logging.getLogger().setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
-os.putenv("DATAHUB_DEBUG", "1")
-
-# Disable telemetry
-os.putenv("DATAHUB_TELEMETRY_ENABLED", "false")
-
 
 @pytest.fixture
 def mock_time(monkeypatch):