diff --git a/azure-pipelines.yml b/azure-pipelines.yml
index 91cd08dff0..a79f9d8eae 100644
--- a/azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -253,4 +253,35 @@ stages:
         pathToPublish: '$(Build.SourcesDirectory)/wheelhouse'
       condition: succeeded()
       displayName: 'Publish wheel as build artifact'
+  - job: 'test Linux wheels'
+    strategy:
+      matrix:
+        ${{ if eq(variables.buildWheel, True) }}:
+          Python38:
+            python.version: '3.8'
+          Python39:
+            python.version: '3.9'
+          Python310:
+            python.version: '3.10'
+          Python311:
+            python.version: '3.11'
+          Python312:
+            python.version: '3.12'
+        ${{ if eq(variables.buildWheel, False) }}:
+          Python311:
+            python.version: '3.11'
+    - script: |
+        sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
+        sudo apt-get update
+        sudo apt-get install -y python$(python.version) python$(python.version)-dev python$(python.version)-venv
+    - script: |
+        package_dir="${PWD}"
+        tmp_dir="$(mktemp -d)"
+        cd "${tmp_dir}"
+        python$(python.version) -m venv "${tmp_dir}/env"
+        find ${package_dir} -name "*cp$(echo $(python.version) | tr -d '.')*.whl" -exec sh -c ". ${tmp_dir}/env/bin/activate && python -m pip install '{}[test]'" \;
+        . ${tmp_dir}/env/bin/activate && bash ${package_dir}/packaging/test_wheel.bash ${package_dir}
+        cd -
+      condition: succeeded()
+      displayName: 'Test Linux Wheel with Python $(python.version)'
     - template: ci/upload-wheels.yml
diff --git a/packaging/test_cli.bash b/packaging/test_cli.bash
deleted file mode 100644
index 0cbf02354f..0000000000
--- a/packaging/test_cli.bash
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-# A simple set of tests checking if the NMODL CLI (called from Python) is
-# working correctly
-set -xe
-
-find "$1/test/" "$1/nmodl/ext/" \
-    -name "*.mod" \
-    -exec nmodl '{}' sympy --analytic \;
diff --git a/packaging/test_wheel.bash b/packaging/test_wheel.bash
index 111d73a34e..b97fc6a165 100755
--- a/packaging/test_wheel.bash
+++ b/packaging/test_wheel.bash
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 # A simple set of tests checking if a wheel is working correctly
 set -xe
 
+python -m pytest "$1/test/unit/pybind"
 find "$1/test/" "$1/nmodl/ext/" \
     -name "*.mod" \
+    -exec nmodl '{}' sympy --analytic \; \
     -exec python -c "import nmodl; driver = nmodl.NmodlDriver(); driver.parse_file('{}')" \;
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 4e35950392..2e76b1ec70 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -56,24 +56,21 @@ NMODL_BUILD_WHEEL = "ON"
 
 [tool.cibuildwheel]
 skip = ["pp*", "*-win32", "*-manylinux_i686", "*-musllinux_i686", "*-musllinux_x86_64", "*-musllinux_aarch64"]
+test-extras = ["test"]
 test-command = [
-    "pytest {package}/test/unit/pybind",
     "bash {package}/packaging/test_wheel.bash {package}",
 ]
-test-extras = ["test"]
 
 [tool.cibuildwheel.macos]
 environment = { PATH = "/opt/homebrew/opt/flex/bin:/opt/homebrew/opt/bison/bin:/usr/local/opt/flex/bin:/usr/local/opt/bison/bin:$PATH", MACOSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET = "10.15" }
 config-settings = {build-dir = "_build"}
-test-command = [
-    "pytest {package}/test/unit/pybind",
-    "bash {package}/packaging/test_wheel.bash {package}",
-    "bash {package}/packaging/test_cli.bash {package}",
-]
 
 [tool.cibuildwheel.linux]
 before-all = "bash packaging/install_dependencies.sh"
 environment = { PATH = "/nmodlwheel/flex/bin:/nmodlwheel/bison/bin:$PATH" }
+# the Linux wheel is not tested in cibuildwheel due to manylinux images not having
+# libpython*.so, so this is tested manually in the CI
+test-command = "true"
 
 [tool.pytest.ini_options]
 testpaths = "test/unit/pybind"