diff --git a/tools/run_tests/build_csharp.sh b/tools/run_tests/build_csharp.sh
index 8227ad37bca5cd5f4ce06c32876106d4292f5df8..546e88db1c8af90c10aac1a2bf5891573ffca30f 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/build_csharp.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/build_csharp.sh
@@ -30,9 +30,16 @@
 
 set -ex
 
+if [ "$CONFIG" = "dbg" ]
+then
+  MSBUILD_CONFIG="Debug"
+else
+  MSBUILD_CONFIG="Release"
+fi
+
 # change to gRPC repo root
 cd $(dirname $0)/../..
 
 root=`pwd`
 
-xbuild src/csharp/Grpc.sln
+xbuild /p:Configuration=$MSBUILD_CONFIG src/csharp/Grpc.sln
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/run_csharp.sh b/tools/run_tests/run_csharp.sh
index d10a41ae9f4858bd5d2bcd410cf79b2d1e8a2d4c..752e83ef70547a7bce5e6dc258eacaf2a0accb4d 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/run_csharp.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/run_csharp.sh
@@ -30,17 +30,22 @@
 
 set -ex
 
+CONFIG=${CONFIG:-opt}
+
+if [ "$CONFIG" = "dbg" ]
+then
+  MSBUILD_CONFIG="Debug"
+else
+  MSBUILD_CONFIG="Release"
+fi
+
 # change to gRPC repo root
 cd $(dirname $0)/../..
 
 root=`pwd`
 cd src/csharp
 
-# TODO: All the tests run pretty fast. In the future, we might need to teach
-# run_tests.py about separate tests to make them run in parallel.
-for assembly_name in Grpc.Core.Tests Grpc.Examples.Tests Grpc.IntegrationTesting
-do
-  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$root/libs/dbg nunit-console -labels $assembly_name/bin/Debug/$assembly_name.dll
-done
+export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$root/libs/$CONFIG
+nunit-console -labels "$1/bin/$MSBUILD_CONFIG/$1.dll"
 
 
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
index 5165983d970589492fc85c3af6779c29171897de..50fdec7f5f2a8e659a14245ee2c7a5fb7f4db445 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
+++ b/tools/run_tests/run_tests.py
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ class SimpleConfig(object):
     self.environ = environ
     self.environ['CONFIG'] = config
 
-  def job_spec(self, cmdline, hash_targets):
+  def job_spec(self, cmdline, hash_targets, shortname=None):
     """Construct a jobset.JobSpec for a test under this config
 
        Args:
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ class SimpleConfig(object):
                           be listed
     """
     return jobset.JobSpec(cmdline=cmdline,
+                          shortname=shortname,
                           environ=self.environ,
                           hash_targets=hash_targets
                               if self.allow_hashing else None)
@@ -218,9 +219,13 @@ class RubyLanguage(object):
 
 
 class CSharpLanguage(object):
-
   def test_specs(self, config, travis):
-    return [config.job_spec('tools/run_tests/run_csharp.sh', None)]
+    assemblies = ['Grpc.Core.Tests',
+                  'Grpc.Examples.Tests',
+                  'Grpc.IntegrationTesting']
+    return [config.job_spec(['tools/run_tests/run_csharp.sh', assembly],
+            None, shortname=assembly)
+            for assembly in assemblies ]
 
   def make_targets(self):
     return ['grpc_csharp_ext']