diff --git a/.buildkite/scripts/steps/test/jest_parallel.sh b/.buildkite/scripts/steps/test/jest_parallel.sh
index d3ee75b7add4a9a..2df2fe046bd2285 100755
--- a/.buildkite/scripts/steps/test/jest_parallel.sh
+++ b/.buildkite/scripts/steps/test/jest_parallel.sh
@@ -5,13 +5,12 @@ set -uo pipefail
 JOB=$BUILDKITE_PARALLEL_JOB
 JOB_COUNT=$BUILDKITE_PARALLEL_JOB_COUNT
 
-# a jest failure will result in the script returning an exit
-# code of 10
+# a jest failure will result in the script returning an exit code of 10
 
 i=0
 exitCode=0
 
-find src x-pack packages -name jest.config.js -not -path "*/__fixtures__/*" | sort | while read config; do
+while read config; do
   if [ "$(($i % $JOB_COUNT))" -eq $JOB ]; then
     echo "--- $ node scripts/jest --config $config"
     node --max-old-space-size=5632 ./node_modules/.bin/jest --config=$config --runInBand --coverage=false
@@ -23,6 +22,7 @@ find src x-pack packages -name jest.config.js -not -path "*/__fixtures__/*" | so
   fi
 
   ((i=i+1))
-done
+# uses heredoc to avoid the while loop being in a sub-shell thus unable to overwrite exitCode
+done <<< "$(find src x-pack packages -name jest.config.js -not -path "*/__fixtures__/*" | sort)"
 
 exit $exitCode
\ No newline at end of file