diff --git a/nixos/modules/services/networking/nomad.nix b/nixos/modules/services/networking/nomad.nix
index 87b4ff18818..60fefa2a1da 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/services/networking/nomad.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/services/networking/nomad.nix
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ in
           Restart = "on-failure";
           RestartSec = 2;
           TasksMax = "infinity";
-          User = "nomad";
+          User = optionalString cfg.dropPrivileges "nomad";
         }
         (mkIf cfg.enableDocker {
           SupplementaryGroups = "docker"; # space-separated string