diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 72cdab40e..071b82f87 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ jobs:
           node-version: << parameters.node-version >>
       # node v14 defaults to npm 6, which is too old for our package-lock.json
       # should be able to remove this step when we drop node v14
-      - run: npm install -g npm@latest
+      - run: npm install -g npm@9
       - node/install-packages
       - run:
           name: Run tests