diff --git a/src/php/bin/run_tests.sh b/src/php/bin/run_tests.sh
index 953f408ea8d..1fe68cdab4b 100755
--- a/src/php/bin/run_tests.sh
+++ b/src/php/bin/run_tests.sh
@@ -31,7 +31,11 @@
 # Loads the local shared library, and runs all of the test cases in tests/
 # against it
 set -e
-cd $(dirname $0)
+cd $(dirname $0)/../../..
+root=$(pwd)
+cd src/php/bin
 source ./determine_extension_dir.sh
+# in some jenkins macos machine, somehow the PHP build script can't find libgrpc.dylib
+export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$root/libs/$config
 php $extension_dir $(which phpunit) -v --debug --strict \
   ../tests/unit_tests
diff --git a/tools/run_tests/build_php.sh b/tools/run_tests/build_php.sh
index 2fad09e1c4d..1d81779b6ac 100755
--- a/tools/run_tests/build_php.sh
+++ b/tools/run_tests/build_php.sh
@@ -46,6 +46,3 @@ cd ext/grpc
 phpize
 ./configure --enable-grpc=$root
 make
-
-# in some jenkins macos machine, somehow the PHP build script can't find libgrpc.dylib
-export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(pwd)/libs/$config