diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 06e7b52..d3725b1 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@ project(quicktex)
 
 # Find dependencies
 find_package(Python COMPONENTS Interpreter Development)
+find_package(pybind11 CONFIG REQUIRED)
 find_package(OpenMP)
-add_subdirectory(extern/pybind11)
 
 # Collect source files
 file(GLOB SOURCE_FILES
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
deleted file mode 100644
index e273cee..0000000
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-graft extern
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/extern/pybind11 b/extern/pybind11
deleted file mode 160000
index 8de7772..0000000
--- a/extern/pybind11
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 8de7772cc72daca8e947b79b83fea46214931604
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 8a7ea04..b1e71a6 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@ requires = [
     "setuptools>=61",
     "setuptools_scm>=6.2",
     "wheel",
+    "cmake>=3.17",
+    "pybind11~=2.6.1",
     "ninja; sys_platform != 'win32'",
-    "cmake>=3.12",
 ]
 build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
 
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 89042b0..73a1074 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import os
 import re
 import sys
 import subprocess
+import pybind11
 
 from setuptools import setup, Extension
 from setuptools.command.build_ext import build_ext
@@ -38,9 +39,12 @@ class CMakeBuild(build_ext):
         # Set Python_EXECUTABLE instead if you use PYBIND11_FINDPYTHON
         cmake_args = [
             "-DCMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY={}".format(extdir),
+            "-Dpybind11_DIR={}".format(pybind11.get_cmake_dir()),
             "-DPython_EXECUTABLE={}".format(sys.executable),
             "-DQUICKTEX_VERSION_INFO={}".format(version),
             "-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE={}".format(cfg),  # not used on MSVC, but no harm
+            # clear cached make program binary, see https://github.com/pypa/setuptools/issues/2912
+            "-U", "CMAKE_MAKE_PROGRAM",
         ]
         build_args = []