diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 881d9549..99e8af4a 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -754,7 +754,7 @@ with_cmdstan_flags <- function(expr) {
      c(
        USE_CXX14 = 1,
        PKG_CPPFLAGS = ifelse(cmdstan_version() <= "2.30.1", "-DCMDSTAN_JSON", ""),
-       PKG_CXXFLAGS = paste(cxxflags, cmdstanr_includes, r_includes, collapse = " "),
+       PKG_CXXFLAGS = paste(cxxflags, "-fPIC", cmdstanr_includes, r_includes, collapse = " "),
        PKG_LIBS = libs
      ),
      expr