diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index d5362db93129c60a1257da7b22c8a5dd6e4cb7f4..5788612ec2ee35c80bbd59e80dcc9e3daef340cc 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 default:
-  image: python:3.7 # minimum supported version
+  image: python:3.10  # use latest for building/linting
   before_script:
     - python --version # For debugging
     - python -m pip install --upgrade pip
@@ -47,8 +47,12 @@ run_pylint:
 
 run_unit_tests:
   stage: test
+  image: python:3.${PY_VERSION}
   script:
-    - tox -e py37,py38,py39,py310
+    - tox -e py3${PY_VERSION}
+  parallel:
+    matrix: # use the matrix for testing
+      - PY_VERSION: [7, 8, 9, 10]
 
 package_files:
   stage: package