diff --git a/edx/analytics/tasks/launchers/remote.py b/edx/analytics/tasks/launchers/remote.py
index e62b90383a..c389b8e654 100755
--- a/edx/analytics/tasks/launchers/remote.py
+++ b/edx/analytics/tasks/launchers/remote.py
@@ -121,6 +121,8 @@ def run_task_playbook(inventory, arguments, uid):
     if arguments.workflow_profiler:
         env_vars['WORKFLOW_PROFILER'] = arguments.workflow_profiler
         env_vars['WORKFLOW_PROFILER_PATH'] = log_dir
+    if arguments.python_version:
+        env_vars['HADOOP_PYTHON_EXECUTABLE'] = arguments.python_version
 
     env_var_string = ' '.join('{0}={1}'.format(k, v) for k, v in env_vars.iteritems())
 
diff --git a/edx/analytics/tasks/tests/acceptance/__init__.py b/edx/analytics/tasks/tests/acceptance/__init__.py
index 50b450f19f..84bb6980cc 100644
--- a/edx/analytics/tasks/tests/acceptance/__init__.py
+++ b/edx/analytics/tasks/tests/acceptance/__init__.py
@@ -209,6 +209,9 @@ def setUp(self):
         self.warehouse_path = url_path_join(self.test_root, 'warehouse')
         self.edx_rest_api_cache_root = url_path_join(self.test_src, 'edx-rest-api-cache')
         task_config_override = {
+            'hadoop': {
+                'python-executable': os.environ('HADOOP_PYTHON_EXECUTABLE', '/usr/bin/python')
+            }
             'hive': {
                 'database': database_name,
                 'warehouse_path': self.warehouse_path