diff --git a/tiledb/sm/filesystem/gcs.cc b/tiledb/sm/filesystem/gcs.cc
index fb2e05e3720..ca45a1ba018 100644
--- a/tiledb/sm/filesystem/gcs.cc
+++ b/tiledb/sm/filesystem/gcs.cc
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
 #include "tiledb/common/unique_rwlock.h"
 #include "tiledb/sm/filesystem/gcs.h"
 #include "tiledb/sm/global_state/global_state.h"
+#include "tiledb/sm/misc/parallel_functions.h"
 #include "tiledb/sm/misc/tdb_math.h"
 #include "tiledb/sm/misc/utils.h"
 
@@ -351,9 +352,11 @@ Status GCS::remove_dir(const URI& uri) const {
 
   std::vector<std::string> paths;
   RETURN_NOT_OK(ls(uri, &paths, ""));
-  for (const auto& path : paths) {
-    RETURN_NOT_OK(remove_object(URI(path)));
-  }
+  auto status = parallel_for(thread_pool_, 0, paths.size(), [&](size_t i) {
+    RETURN_NOT_OK(remove_object(URI(paths[i])));
+    return Status::Ok();
+  });
+  RETURN_NOT_OK(status);
 
   return Status::Ok();
 }
diff --git a/tiledb/sm/filesystem/s3.cc b/tiledb/sm/filesystem/s3.cc
index cbedcc3f9f0..01fc84c25c7 100644
--- a/tiledb/sm/filesystem/s3.cc
+++ b/tiledb/sm/filesystem/s3.cc
@@ -935,10 +935,13 @@ Status S3::remove_dir(const URI& uri) const {
   RETURN_NOT_OK(init_client());
 
   std::vector<std::string> paths;
-  auto uri_dir = uri.add_trailing_slash();
-  RETURN_NOT_OK(ls(uri_dir, &paths, ""));
-  for (const auto& p : paths)
-    RETURN_NOT_OK(remove_object(URI(p)));
+  RETURN_NOT_OK(ls(uri, &paths, ""));
+  auto status = parallel_for(vfs_thread_pool_, 0, paths.size(), [&](size_t i) {
+    RETURN_NOT_OK(remove_object(URI(paths[i])));
+    return Status::Ok();
+  });
+  RETURN_NOT_OK(status);
+
   return Status::Ok();
 }