diff --git a/.github/workflows/release-80_publish-crates.yml b/.github/workflows/release-80_publish-crates.yml
index 090d9706f4fd0..176a4ef25e2f6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release-80_publish-crates.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release-80_publish-crates.yml
@@ -40,6 +40,11 @@ on:
         required: false
         type: string
         default: prdoc
+      publish_jobs:
+        description: 'Number of parallel publish jobs (0 = sequential publishing, >0 = parallel with N jobs).'
+        required: false
+        type: string
+        default: '0'
 
 permissions:
   contents: write
@@ -251,6 +256,13 @@ jobs:
           cargo update --workspace --offline || cargo update --workspace
           echo "Cargo.lock updated"
 
+      - name: Verify workspace compiles
+        if: inputs.resume_from == 'full' || inputs.resume_from == 'apply'
+        run: |
+          echo "Checking that rewritten manifests compile..."
+          cargo check --workspace --all-targets 2>&1
+          echo "Workspace compiles successfully"
+
       - name: Commit version bumps
         if: inputs.resume_from == 'full' || inputs.resume_from == 'apply'
         shell: bash
@@ -296,15 +308,21 @@ jobs:
           PARITY_PUBLISH_CRATESIO_TOKEN: ${{ inputs.registry == 'staging.crates.io' && secrets.STAGING_CRATES_IO_API_TOKEN || secrets.CRATES_IO_API_TOKEN }}
           DRY_RUN: ${{ inputs.dry_run }}
           REGISTRY: ${{ inputs.registry }}
+          PUBLISH_JOBS: ${{ inputs.publish_jobs }}
         run: |
+          PARALLEL_ARGS=""
+          if [ "$PUBLISH_JOBS" -gt 0 ] 2>/dev/null; then
+            echo "Parallel publishing enabled with $PUBLISH_JOBS jobs"
+            PARALLEL_ARGS="-j $PUBLISH_JOBS --no-verify"
+          fi
 
           if [ "$DRY_RUN" = true ]; then
             echo "DRY RUN - Not actually publishing crates"
             echo "Target registry: $REGISTRY"
-            parity-publish apply -p -d
+            parity-publish apply -p -d $PARALLEL_ARGS
           else
             echo "Publishing crates to $REGISTRY..."
-            parity-publish apply -p
+            parity-publish apply -p $PARALLEL_ARGS
             echo "Crates published successfully to $REGISTRY!"
           fi
 
@@ -331,6 +349,7 @@ jobs:
         if: failure()
         env:
           CRATES_RELEASE_BRANCH: ${{ steps.derive_branch.outputs.CRATES_RELEASE_BRANCH }}
+          GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
         run: |
           echo "Job failed. Pushing branch '$CRATES_RELEASE_BRANCH' to origin (paritytech-release) to preserve state for resume..."
           # Restore origin to the fork repo in case it was changed by the upstream push step