diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index f69e2957f..fb76db56d 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -272,7 +272,9 @@ test:
 compile-services:
   extends: .rust-base
   stage: compile
-  needs: [test]
+  needs:
+    - job: check
+      optional: true  # skipped in dev-release mode
   rules:
     - if: $CI_COMMIT_BRANCH == "main" && $CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "push"
       changes:
diff --git a/infra/k8s/gitlab/runner-values.yaml b/infra/k8s/gitlab/runner-values.yaml
index 9e23491f9..d73d5e2f5 100644
--- a/infra/k8s/gitlab/runner-values.yaml
+++ b/infra/k8s/gitlab/runner-values.yaml
@@ -32,11 +32,12 @@ runners:
         node_selector_overwrite_allowed = ".*"
         # L40S scale-to-zero needs ~3-5 min to provision; default 180s times out
         poll_timeout = 600
-        # Resource limits for build pods (L40S node: ~24 vCPU, ~96GB)
-        cpu_request = "6000m"
-        cpu_limit = "20000m"
-        memory_request = "24Gi"
-        memory_limit = "80Gi"
+        # Default resource limits — low for Kaniko/lightweight jobs
+        # Rust compile/test/training jobs override via KUBERNETES_*_REQUEST CI vars
+        cpu_request = "500m"
+        cpu_limit = "4000m"
+        memory_request = "1Gi"
+        memory_limit = "8Gi"
         helper_cpu_request = "100m"
         helper_cpu_limit = "500m"
         helper_memory_request = "128Mi"
@@ -68,8 +69,8 @@ runners:
   # Runner tags for job matching
   tags: "kapsule,rust,docker,gpu"
 
-# Concurrency
-concurrent: 4
+# Concurrency — 10 allows all 9 Kaniko builds + test to run in parallel
+concurrent: 10
 
 # RBAC for runner to spawn pods
 rbac: