diff --git a/.buildkite/hooks/post-checkout b/.buildkite/hooks/post-checkout
deleted file mode 100755
index b157290266..0000000000
--- a/.buildkite/hooks/post-checkout
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,54 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-set -euo pipefail
-
-checkout_merge() {
-    local target_branch=$1
-    local pr_commit=$2
-    local merge_branch=$3
-
-    if [[ -z "${target_branch}" ]]; then
-        echo "No pull request target branch"
-        exit 1
-    fi
-
-    git fetch -v origin "${target_branch}"
-    git checkout FETCH_HEAD
-    echo "Current branch: $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"
-
-    # create temporal branch to merge the PR with the target branch
-    git checkout -b ${merge_branch}
-    echo "New branch created: $(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)"
-
-    # set author identity so it can be run git merge
-    git config user.name "github-merged-pr-post-checkout"
-    git config user.email "auto-merge@buildkite"
-
-    git merge --no-edit "${BUILDKITE_COMMIT}" || {
-        local merge_result=$?
-        echo "Merge failed: ${merge_result}"
-        git merge --abort
-        exit ${merge_result}
-    }
-}
-
-pull_request="${BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST:-false}"
-
-if [[ "${pull_request}" == "false" ]]; then
-    echo "Not a pull request, skipping"
-    exit 0
-fi
-
-TARGET_BRANCH="${BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST_BASE_BRANCH:-master}"
-PR_COMMIT="${BUILDKITE_COMMIT}"
-PR_ID=${BUILDKITE_PULL_REQUEST}
-MERGE_BRANCH="pr_merge_${PR_ID}"
-
-checkout_merge "${TARGET_BRANCH}" "${PR_COMMIT}" "${MERGE_BRANCH}"
-
-echo "Commit information"
-
-git --no-pager log --format=%B -n 1
-
-# Ensure buildkite groups are rendered
-echo ""
diff --git a/.buildkite/pull-requests.json b/.buildkite/pull-requests.json
index a1e506227e..fa74eb95f8 100644
--- a/.buildkite/pull-requests.json
+++ b/.buildkite/pull-requests.json
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
         "trigger_comment_regex": "^(?:(?:buildkite\\W+)?(?:build|test)\\W+(?:this|it))|^/test$",
         "always_trigger_comment_regex": "^(?:(?:buildkite\\W+)?(?:build|test)\\W+(?:this|it))|^/test$",
         "skip_ci_on_only_changed": [ "^.ci/", "^.github/", "catalog-info.yaml", "^.pre-commit-config.yaml", "^.mergify.yml", "\\.md$", "^changelog/", "^docs/"],
+        "use_merge_commit": true,
         "fail_on_not_mergeable": true
       },
       {
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@
         "build_on_comment": true,
         "trigger_comment_regex": "^(?:(?:buildkite\\W+)?(?:package)\\W+(?:this|it))|^/package$",
         "always_trigger_comment_regex": "^(?:(?:buildkite\\W+)?(?:package)\\W+(?:this|it))|^/package$",
+        "use_merge_commit": true,
         "fail_on_not_mergeable": true
       },
       {
@@ -37,6 +39,7 @@
         "build_on_comment": true,
         "trigger_comment_regex": "^(?:(?:buildkite\\W+)?(?:run)\\W+(?:perf-tests))|^/perf-tests$",
         "always_trigger_comment_regex": "^(?:(?:buildkite\\W+)?(?:run)\\W+(?:perf-tests))|^/perf-tests$",
+        "use_merge_commit": true,
         "fail_on_not_mergeable": true
       }
     ]