diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 919b0060f..4f335b405 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -31,6 +31,10 @@ ext {
     // If you are building on Windows, you will need to explicitly set eigenIncludeDir in your
     // local.properties file since the default value provided below only makes sense on *nix
     eigenIncludeDir = project.findProperty('eigenIncludeDir') ?: '/usr/include/eigen3'
+
+    // If you're having trouble with a "can't find python" CMake error, you can specify the path to
+    // Python 3 explicitly in local.properties with a property named "pythonBinary"
+    pythonBinary = project.findProperty('pythonBinary')
 }
 
 allprojects {
diff --git a/src/xrt/targets/openxr_android/build.gradle b/src/xrt/targets/openxr_android/build.gradle
index 25d346c10..cddbecd5f 100644
--- a/src/xrt/targets/openxr_android/build.gradle
+++ b/src/xrt/targets/openxr_android/build.gradle
@@ -38,6 +38,11 @@ android {
         externalNativeBuild {
             cmake {
                 arguments "-DEIGEN3_INCLUDE_DIR=${project.eigenIncludeDir}", "-DANDROID_PLATFORM=26", "-DANDROID_STL=c++_shared", "-DANDROID_ARM_NEON=TRUE"
+
+            }
+            if (project.pythonBinary != null) {
+                println "Path to Python 3 explicitly specified: ${project.pythonBinary}"
+                cmake.arguments "-DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=${project.pythonBinary}"
             }
         }
     }