diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 99109309405..5193eac0087 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@ option(FLB_TESTS_INTERNAL_FUZZ "Enable internal fuzz tests"    No)
 option(FLB_TESTS_OSSFUZZ       "Enable OSS-Fuzz build"         No)
 option(FLB_MTRACE              "Enable mtrace support"         No)
 option(FLB_POSIX_TLS           "Force POSIX thread storage"    No)
+option(FLB_PREFER_SYSTEM_LIBS  "Prefer system installed libraries" No)
 option(FLB_INOTIFY             "Enable inotify support"       Yes)
 option(FLB_SQLDB               "Enable SQL embedded DB"       Yes)
 option(FLB_HTTP_SERVER         "Enable HTTP Server"           Yes)
@@ -1011,7 +1012,16 @@ endif()
 # LuaJIT (Scripting Support)
 # ==========================
 if(FLB_LUAJIT)
-  include(cmake/luajit.cmake)
+  if(FLB_PREFER_SYSTEM_LIBS)
+    find_package(PkgConfig)
+    pkg_check_modules(LUAJIT luajit>=2.1.0)
+  endif()
+  if(LUAJIT_FOUND)
+    include_directories(${LUAJIT_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+  else()
+    include(cmake/luajit.cmake)
+    set(LUAJIT_LIBRARIES "libluajit")
+  endif()
   FLB_DEFINITION(FLB_HAVE_LUAJIT)
 endif()
 
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index b6233d9f721..67baec45653 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ endif()
 if(FLB_LUAJIT)
   set(extra_libs
     ${extra_libs}
-    "libluajit")
+    ${LUAJIT_LIBRARIES})
 endif()
 
 if(FLB_SQLDB)