diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/build_systems/autotools.py b/lib/spack/spack/build_systems/autotools.py
index fe4c2b9e8fcca5..5225f4e7173085 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/build_systems/autotools.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/build_systems/autotools.py
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 from subprocess import check_call
 
 import llnl.util.tty as tty
+from llnl.util.filesystem import working_dir
 from spack.package import PackageBase