diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yaml b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
index 00534037..58d181ea 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yaml
@@ -198,6 +198,11 @@ jobs:
           CRDS_SERVER_URL: ${{ matrix.env.CRDS_SERVER_URL }}
           WEBBPSF_PATH: ${{ env.DATA_DIRECTORY }}/webbpsf-data
         working-directory: ${{ matrix.package }}
+      - if: matrix.data != ''
+        uses: actions/cache@v3
+        with:
+          path: 'tests/data/'
+          key: data-${{ hashFiles('tests/data/*') }}
   smoke_tests:
     name: run `${{ matrix.package }}` smoke tests in Python ${{ matrix.python-version }} environment on ${{ matrix.runs-on }}
     needs: [ build ]