diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d847d10..6b328cf 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,10 @@ use patch releases for compatibility fixes instead.
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+### Added
+
+- Added support for passing human-readable `synchronized_start_timeout` duration strings to `TaskSpec.new()`, like "10sec", "1m", etc.
+
 ## [v1.26.9](https://github.com/allenai/beaker-py/releases/tag/v1.26.9) - 2024-05-02
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/beaker/data_model/experiment_spec.py b/beaker/data_model/experiment_spec.py
index 2357326..7674956 100644
--- a/beaker/data_model/experiment_spec.py
+++ b/beaker/data_model/experiment_spec.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 from ..aliases import PathOrStr
 from ..exceptions import *
+from ..util import parse_duration
 from .base import BaseModel, StrEnum, field_validator, model_validator
 
 __all__ = [
@@ -472,10 +473,11 @@ def new(
                 else:
                     constraints = Constraints(cluster=[cluster])
 
-        # Allow setting the timeout using seconds, rather than nanoseconds.
+        # Allow setting the timeout as a string rather than nanoseconds, and assume a string
+        # without units means seconds.
         synchronized_start_timeout_str = kwargs.pop("synchronized_start_timeout", None)
         if synchronized_start_timeout_str is not None:
-            synchronized_start_timeout = int(synchronized_start_timeout_str * 1_000_000_000)
+            synchronized_start_timeout = parse_duration(synchronized_start_timeout_str)
             kwargs["synchronized_start_timeout"] = synchronized_start_timeout
 
         return TaskSpec(
diff --git a/beaker/util.py b/beaker/util.py
index af08c79..41578f5 100644
--- a/beaker/util.py
+++ b/beaker/util.py
@@ -117,6 +117,46 @@ def format_since(since: Union[datetime, timedelta, str]) -> str:
         return since
 
 
+def parse_duration(dur: str) -> int:
+    """
+    Parse a duration string into nanoseconds.
+    """
+    dur_normalized = dur.replace(" ", "").lower()
+    match = re.match(r"^([0-9.e-]+)([a-z]*)$", dur_normalized)
+    if not match:
+        raise ValueError(f"invalid duration string '{dur}'")
+
+    value_str, unit = match.group(1), match.group(2)
+    try:
+        value = float(value_str)
+    except ValueError:
+        raise ValueError(f"invalid duration string '{dur}'")
+
+    if not unit:
+        # assume seconds
+        unit = "s"
+
+    if unit in ("ns", "nanosecond", "nanoseconds"):
+        # nanoseconds
+        return int(value)
+    elif unit in ("µs", "microsecond", "microseconds"):
+        return int(value * 1_000)
+    elif unit in ("ms", "millisecond", "milliseconds"):
+        # milliseconds
+        return int(value * 1_000_000)
+    elif unit in ("s", "sec", "second", "seconds"):
+        # seconds
+        return int(value * 1_000_000_000)
+    elif unit in ("m", "min", "minute", "minutes"):
+        # minutes
+        return int(value * 60_000_000_000)
+    elif unit in ("h", "hr", "hour", "hours"):
+        # hours
+        return int(value * 3_600_000_000_000)
+    else:
+        raise ValueError(f"invalid duration string '{dur}'")
+
+
 TIMESTAMP_RE = re.compile(rb"^([0-9]{4}-[0-9]{2}-[0-9]{2}T[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}.[0-9]+Z)(.*)$")
 
 
diff --git a/tests/util_test.py b/tests/util_test.py
index 5db83fe..f7b136b 100644
--- a/tests/util_test.py
+++ b/tests/util_test.py
@@ -49,3 +49,11 @@ def test_format_cursor():
     cursor = 100
     formatted = format_cursor(100)
     assert int.from_bytes(base64.urlsafe_b64decode(formatted), "little") == cursor
+
+
+def test_parse_duration():
+    assert parse_duration("1") == 1_000_000_000
+    assert parse_duration("1s") == 1_000_000_000
+    assert parse_duration("1sec") == 1_000_000_000
+    assert parse_duration("1m") == 60 * 1_000_000_000
+    assert parse_duration("1h") == 60 * 60 * 1_000_000_000