diff --git a/cmake/dependencies/pybind11.cmake b/cmake/dependencies/pybind11.cmake
index 6719a38c37..70899de816 100644
--- a/cmake/dependencies/pybind11.cmake
+++ b/cmake/dependencies/pybind11.cmake
@@ -16,6 +16,11 @@ function(find_pybind11)
             message(STATUS "pybind11 repository: ${openPMD_pybind11_repo} (${openPMD_pybind11_branch})")
         endif()
     endif()
+
+    # rely on our find_package(Python ...) call
+    # https://pybind11.readthedocs.io/en/stable/compiling.html#modules-with-cmake
+    set(PYBIND11_FINDPYTHON ON)
+
     if(TARGET pybind11::module)
         # nothing to do, target already exists in the superbuild
     elseif(openPMD_USE_INTERNAL_PYBIND11 AND openPMD_pybind11_src)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4ecbfc5c68..8f81f4b652 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -49,7 +49,6 @@ def build_extension(self, ext):
             os.path.join(extdir, "openpmd_api"),
             # '-DCMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=' + extdir,
             '-DopenPMD_PYTHON_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY=' + extdir,
-            '-DPython_EXECUTABLE=' + sys.executable,
             '-DopenPMD_USE_PYTHON:BOOL=ON',
             # variants
             '-DopenPMD_USE_MPI:BOOL=' + openPMD_USE_MPI,