diff --git a/projects/rocprofiler-sdk/external/CMakeLists.txt b/projects/rocprofiler-sdk/external/CMakeLists.txt
index 5bee3dc032c..7c9be234a8a 100644
--- a/projects/rocprofiler-sdk/external/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/projects/rocprofiler-sdk/external/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -138,13 +138,26 @@ rocprofiler_checkout_git_submodule(
     REPO_URL https://github.com/jbeder/yaml-cpp.git
     REPO_BRANCH "master")
 
-add_subdirectory(yaml-cpp EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
+
+# Prefer system-provided yaml-cpp over vendored one
+option(ROCPROF_USE_SYS_YAML_CPP
+        "Use system-provided yaml-cpp instead of vendored external/yaml-cpp" ON)
+
+    if (ROCPROF_USE_SYS_YAML_CPP)
+        find_package(yaml-cpp CONFIG REQUIRED)
+    else()
+        add_subdirectory(yaml-cpp EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
+    endif()
+
 
 target_link_libraries(rocprofiler-sdk-yaml-cpp
-                      INTERFACE $<BUILD_INTERFACE:yaml-cpp::yaml-cpp>)
-target_include_directories(
-    rocprofiler-sdk-yaml-cpp
-    INTERFACE $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/external/yaml-cpp/include>)
+                      INTERFACE yaml-cpp::yaml-cpp)
+
+if (NOT ROCPROF_USE_SYS_YAML_CPP)
+    target_include_directories(
+        rocprofiler-sdk-yaml-cpp
+        INTERFACE $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/external/yaml-cpp/include>)
+endif()
 
 # checkout submodule if not already checked out or clone repo if no .gitmodules file
 rocprofiler_checkout_git_submodule(