diff --git a/services/baremetal-builder/assignments.nix b/services/baremetal-builder/assignments.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a064d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/baremetal-builder/assignments.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# This file contains information on which builder(s) are providing how many
+# job slots and providing which nix features
+let
+  genBuilders = { offset ? 0, count, f }: builtins.genList (x: rec { name = "builder-${toString (offset + x)}"; value = f name; }) count;
+in builtins.listToAttrs (
+  # The first 8 builders are general purpose
+  genBuilders { count = 8; f = name: {
+    cores = 8;
+    max-jobs = 8;
+    supported-features = [ "kvm" "nixos-test" ];
+    required-features = [ ];
+  }; }
+  ++
+  # The last 2 builders are exclusively for big-parallel
+  genBuilders { offset = 8; count = 2; f = name: {
+    cores = 20;
+    max-jobs = 1;
+    supported-features = [ "kvm" "nixos-test" "big-parallel" ];
+    required-features = [ "big-parallel" ];
+  }; }
+)
diff --git a/services/baremetal-builder/default.nix b/services/baremetal-builder/default.nix
index 00e36cf..3fc32ca 100644
--- a/services/baremetal-builder/default.nix
+++ b/services/baremetal-builder/default.nix
@@ -40,8 +40,10 @@ in
         "ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIGMnOLLX0vGTZbSJrUmF9ZFXt/NIId/MUrEpXmL2vxod"
       ];
     };
-    nix.settings.trusted-users = [ "builder" "buildbot" ];
-
+    nix.settings = {
+      trusted-users = [ "builder" "buildbot" ];
+      inherit ((import ./assignments.nix).${config.networking.hostName}) max-jobs cores;
+    };
 
     nixpkgs.hostPlatform = "x86_64-linux";
     hardware.cpu.intel.updateMicrocode = true;
diff --git a/services/hydra/default.nix b/services/hydra/default.nix
index b2f5a3c..608fb2c 100644
--- a/services/hydra/default.nix
+++ b/services/hydra/default.nix
@@ -13,15 +13,36 @@ let
 
   # XXX: to support Nix's dumb public host key syntax (base64'd), this outputs
   # a string with shell-style command interpolations: $(...).
-  mkBaremetalBuilder = { parallelBuilds, publicHostKey, host, speedFactor ? 1, user ? "builder", supportedSystems ? [ "i686-linux" "x86_64-linux" ], supportedFeatures ? [ "big-parallel" "kvm" "nixos-test" ] }:
-  "ssh://${user}@${host}?remote-store=/mnt ${lib.concatStringsSep "," supportedSystems} ${config.age.secrets.hydra-ssh-key-priv.path} ${toString parallelBuilds} ${toString speedFactor} ${lib.concatStringsSep "," supportedFeatures} - $(echo -n '${publicHostKey}' | base64 -w0)";
+  mkBaremetalBuilder = {
+    parallelBuilds,
+    publicHostKey,
+    host,
+    speedFactor ? 1,
+    user ? "builder",
+    supportedSystems ? [ "i686-linux" "x86_64-linux" ],
+    supportedFeatures ? [ "big-parallel" "kvm" "nixos-test" ],
+    requiredFeatures ? [ ]
+  }:
+  let
+    supportedFeatures_ = if (supportedFeatures != []) then lib.concatStringsSep "," supportedFeatures else "-";
+    requiredFeatures_ = if (requiredFeatures != []) then lib.concatStringsSep "," requiredFeatures else "-";
+  in
+  "ssh://${user}@${host}?remote-store=/mnt ${lib.concatStringsSep "," supportedSystems} ${config.age.secrets.hydra-ssh-key-priv.path} ${toString parallelBuilds} ${toString speedFactor} ${supportedFeatures_} ${requiredFeatures_} $(echo -n '${publicHostKey}' | base64 -w0)";
 
   # TODO:
   # - generalize to new architectures
   # - generalize to new features
   baremetalBuilders = lib.concatStringsSep "\n"
-    (map (n: mkBaremetalBuilder {
-      parallelBuilds = 8; # TODO: do not hardcode this, use the node's builder configuration.
+    (map (n: let
+      assignments = (import ../baremetal-builder/assignments.nix).${n} or {
+        inherit (nodes.${n}.config.nix.settings) max-jobs;
+        supported-features = [ "big-parallel" "kvm" "nixos-test" ];
+        required-features = [];
+      };
+    in mkBaremetalBuilder {
+      parallelBuilds = assignments.max-jobs;
+      supportedFeatures = assignments.supported-features;
+      requiredFeatures = assignments.required-features;
       publicHostKey = ssh-keys.machines.${n};
       host = nodes.${n}.config.networking.fqdn;
     }) cfg.builders);