diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index e40d3cfd4d52..d5260de92469 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ jobs:
       - *yarn_install
       - *setup_bazel_binary
 
-      - run: ./scripts/build-packages-dist.sh
+      - run: yarn build
       - run: yarn check-release-output
 
       # TODO(devversion): replace this with bazel tests that run Madge. This is
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 562cfb4b7f94..b8eedc205155 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
   },
   "scripts": {
     "postinstall": "node tools/bazel/postinstall-patches.js && ngcc --properties main --create-ivy-entry-points",
-    "build": "bash ./scripts/build-packages-dist.sh",
+    "build": "node ./scripts/build-packages-dist.js",
     "bazel:buildifier": "find . -type f \\( -name \"*.bzl\" -or -name WORKSPACE -or -name BUILD -or -name BUILD.bazel \\) ! -path \"*/node_modules/*\" | xargs buildifier -v --warnings=attr-cfg,attr-license,attr-non-empty,attr-output-default,attr-single-file,constant-glob,ctx-args,depset-iteration,depset-union,dict-concatenation,duplicated-name,filetype,git-repository,http-archive,integer-division,load,load-on-top,native-build,native-package,output-group,package-name,package-on-top,redefined-variable,repository-name,same-origin-load,string-iteration,unused-variable,unsorted-dict-items,out-of-order-load",
     "bazel:format-lint": "yarn -s bazel:buildifier --lint=warn --mode=check",
     "dev-app": "ibazel run //src/dev-app:devserver",
diff --git a/scripts/build-packages-dist.js b/scripts/build-packages-dist.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8bfd47f395a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/build-packages-dist.js
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+/**
+ * Script that builds the release output of all packages which have the "release-package
+ * bazel tag set. The script builds all those packages and copies the release output to the
+ * distribution folder within the project.
+ */
+
+const {execSync} = require('child_process');
+const {join} = require('path');
+const {chmod, cp, mkdir, rm, set, test} = require('shelljs');
+
+// ShellJS should exit if a command fails.
+set('-e');
+
+/** Name of the Bazel tag that will be used to find release package targets. */
+const releaseTargetTag = 'release-package';
+
+/** Path to the project directory. */
+const projectDir = join(__dirname, '../');
+
+/** Command that runs Bazel. */
+const bazelCmd = process.env.BAZEL_COMMAND || `yarn -s bazel`;
+
+/** Command that queries Bazel for all release package targets. */
+const queryPackagesCmd =
+    `${bazelCmd} query --output=label "attr('tags', '\\[.*${releaseTargetTag}.*\\]', //src/...) ` +
+    `intersect kind('.*_package', //src/...)"`;
+
+// Export the methods for building the release packages. These
+// can be consumed by the release tool.
+exports.buildReleasePackages = buildReleasePackages;
+exports.defaultBuildReleasePackages = defaultBuildReleasePackages;
+
+if (module === require.main) {
+  defaultBuildReleasePackages();
+}
+
+/**
+ * Builds the release packages with the default compile mode and
+ * output directory.
+ */
+function defaultBuildReleasePackages() {
+  buildReleasePackages('legacy', join(projectDir, 'dist/releases'));
+}
+
+/**
+ * Builds the release packages with the given compile mode and copies
+ * the package output into the given directory.
+ */
+function buildReleasePackages(compileMode, distPath) {
+  console.log('######################################');
+  console.log('  Building release packages...');
+  console.log(`  Compile mode: ${compileMode}`);
+  console.log('######################################');
+
+  // List of targets to build. e.g. "src/cdk:npm_package", or "src/material:npm_package".
+  const targets = exec(queryPackagesCmd, true).split(/\r?\n/);
+  const packageNames = getPackageNamesOfTargets(targets);
+  const bazelBinPath = exec(`${bazelCmd} info bazel-bin`, true);
+  const getOutputPath = pkgName => join(bazelBinPath, 'src', pkgName, 'npm_package');
+
+  // Walk through each release package and clear previous "npm_package" outputs. This is
+  // a workaround for: https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_nodejs/issues/1219. We need to
+  // do this to ensure that the version placeholders are properly populated.
+  packageNames.forEach(pkgName => {
+    const outputPath = getOutputPath(pkgName);
+    if (test('-d', outputPath)) {
+      chmod('-R', 'u+w', outputPath);
+      rm('-rf', outputPath);
+    }
+  });
+
+  // Build with "--config=release" so that Bazel runs the workspace stamping script. The
+  // stamping script ensures that the version placeholder is populated in the release output.
+  exec(`${bazelCmd} build --config=release --define=compile=${compileMode} ${targets.join(' ')}`);
+
+  // Delete the distribution directory so that the output is guaranteed to be clean. Re-create
+  // the empty directory so that we can copy the release packages into it later.
+  rm('-rf', distPath);
+  mkdir('-p', distPath);
+
+  // Copy the package output into the specified distribution folder.
+  packageNames.forEach(pkgName => {
+    const outputPath = getOutputPath(pkgName);
+    const targetFolder = join(distPath, pkgName);
+    console.log(`> Copying package output to "${targetFolder}"`);
+    cp('-R', outputPath, targetFolder);
+    chmod('-R', 'u+w', targetFolder);
+  });
+}
+
+/**
+ * Gets the package names of the specified Bazel targets.
+ * e.g. //src/material:npm_package -> material
+ */
+function getPackageNamesOfTargets(targets) {
+  return targets.map(targetName => {
+    const matches = targetName.match(/\/\/src\/(.*):npm_package/);
+    if (matches === null) {
+      throw Error(`Found Bazel target with "${releaseTargetTag}" tag, but could not ` +
+        `determine release output name: ${targetName}`);
+    }
+    return matches[1];
+  });
+}
+
+/**
+ * Executes the given command in the project directory.
+ * @param {string} command The command to run
+ * @param {boolean=} captureStdout Whether the stdout should be captured and
+ *   returned.
+ */
+function exec(command, captureStdout) {
+  const stdout = execSync(command, {
+    cwd: projectDir,
+    stdio: ['inherit', captureStdout ? 'pipe' : 'inherit', 'inherit'],
+  });
+
+  if (captureStdout) {
+    process.stdout.write(stdout);
+    return stdout.toString().trim();
+  }
+}
diff --git a/scripts/build-packages-dist.sh b/scripts/build-packages-dist.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 95040a78c1ab..000000000000
--- a/scripts/build-packages-dist.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,81 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env bash
-
-# Script that builds the release output of all packages which have the "release-package"
-# bazel tag set. The script builds all those packages and copies the release output to a
-# folder within the project.
-
-set -u -e -o pipefail
-
-# Go to project directory.
-cd $(dirname ${0})/..
-
-# Either "legacy" (view engine) or "aot" (ivy)
-compile_mode=${1:-"legacy"}
-
-# Path to the bazel binary. By default uses "bazel" from the node modules but developers
-# can overwrite the binary though an environment variable. Also by default if we run Bazel
-# from the node modules, we don't want to access bazel through Yarn and NodeJS because it
-# could mean that the Bazel child process only has access to limited memory.
-bazel=${BAZEL_BIN_PATH:-$(yarn bin bazel)}
-
-echo "######################################"
-echo "  building release packages"
-echo "  mode: ${compile_mode}"
-echo "######################################"
-echo ""
-
-# Path to the output directory into which we copy the npm packages.
-dest_path="dist/releases"
-
-# Path to the bazel-bin directory.
-bazel_bin_path=$(${bazel} info bazel-bin)
-
-# List of targets that need to be built, e.g. //src/lib, //src/cdk, etc. Note we need to remove all
-# carriage returns because Bazel prints these on Windows. This breaks the Bash array parsing.
-targets=$(${bazel} query --output=label 'attr("tags", "\[.*release-package.*\]", //src/...)' \
-  'intersect kind(".*_package", //src/...)' | tr -d "\r")
-
-# Extracts the package name from the Bazel target names.
-# e.g. `src/material:npm_package` will result in "material".
-dirs=`echo "$targets" | sed -e 's/\/\/src\/\(.*\):npm_package/\1/'`
-
-# Walk through each release package and clear previous "npm_package" outputs. This is
-# a workaround for: https://github.com/bazelbuild/rules_nodejs/issues/1219. We need to
-# do this to ensure that the version placeholders are properly populated.
-for pkg in ${dirs}; do
-  pkg_dir="${bazel_bin_path}/src/${pkg}/npm_package"
-  if [[ -d ${pkg_dir} ]]; then
-    # Make all directories in the previous package output writable. Bazel by default
-    # makes tree artifacts and file outputs readonly. This causes permission errors
-    # when deleting the folder. To avoid these errors, we make all files writable.
-    chmod -R u+w ${pkg_dir}
-    rm -Rf ${pkg_dir}
-  fi
-done
-
-# Walk through each release package target and build it.
-for target in ${targets}; do
-  echo -e "Building: ${target} ...\n"
-  # Build with "--config=release" so that Bazel runs the workspace stamping script. The
-  # stamping script ensures that the version placeholder is populated in the release output.
-  ${bazel} build --config=release --define=compile=${compile_mode} ${target}
-  echo ""
-done
-
-# Delete the distribution directory so that the output is guaranteed to be clean. Re-create
-# the empty directory so that we can copy the release packages into it later.
-rm -Rf ${dest_path}
-mkdir -p ${dest_path}
-
-# Copy the package output for all built NPM packages into the dist directory.
-for pkg in ${dirs}; do
-  pkg_dir="${bazel_bin_path}/src/${pkg}/npm_package"
-  target_dir="${dest_path}/${pkg}"
-
-  if [[ -d ${pkg_dir} ]]; then
-    echo "> Copying package output to \"${target_dir}\".."
-    rm -rf ${target_dir}
-    cp -R ${pkg_dir} ${target_dir}
-    chmod -R u+w ${target_dir}
-  fi
-done
diff --git a/tools/release/publish-release.ts b/tools/release/publish-release.ts
index a4b6ffa6a5a5..15c546ebcb1a 100644
--- a/tools/release/publish-release.ts
+++ b/tools/release/publish-release.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 import chalk from 'chalk';
-import {spawnSync} from 'child_process';
 import {readFileSync, unlinkSync} from 'fs';
 import {homedir} from 'os';
 import {join} from 'path';
@@ -15,6 +14,10 @@ import {releasePackages} from './release-output/release-packages';
 import {CHANGELOG_FILE_NAME} from './stage-release';
 import {parseVersionName, Version} from './version-name/parse-version';
 
+// The package builder script is not written in TypeScript and needs to
+// be imported through a CommonJS import.
+const {defaultBuildReleasePackages} = require('../../scripts/build-packages-dist');
+
 /**
  * Class that can be instantiated in order to create a new release. The tasks requires user
  * interaction/input through command line prompts.
@@ -87,7 +90,7 @@ class PublishReleaseTask extends BaseReleaseTask {
       await this._promptStableVersionForNextTag();
     }
 
-    this._buildReleasePackages();
+    defaultBuildReleasePackages();
     console.info(chalk.green(`  ✓   Built the release output.`));
 
     // Checks all release packages against release output validations before releasing.
@@ -149,16 +152,6 @@ class PublishReleaseTask extends BaseReleaseTask {
     }
   }
 
-  /** Builds all release packages that should be published. */
-  private _buildReleasePackages() {
-    const buildScript = join(this.projectDir, 'scripts/build-packages-dist.sh');
-
-    // TODO(devversion): I'd prefer disabling the output for those, but it might be only
-    // worth if we consider adding some terminal spinner library (like "ora").
-    return spawnSync('bash', [buildScript],
-      {cwd: this.projectDir, stdio: 'inherit', shell: true}).status === 0;
-  }
-
   /**
    * Prompts the user whether they are sure that the current stable version should be
    * released to the "next" NPM dist-tag.