diff --git a/.github/workflows/_build-and-test-locally.yml b/.github/workflows/_build-and-test-locally.yml
index 7751f9e8c9..182e96a8ca 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/_build-and-test-locally.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/_build-and-test-locally.yml
@@ -19,6 +19,10 @@ on:
         description: 'debug or release'
         required: true
         type: string
+      pg-versions:
+        description: 'a json array of postgres versions to run regression tests on'
+        required: true
+        type: string
 
 defaults:
   run:
@@ -254,7 +258,7 @@ jobs:
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
-        pg_version: [ v14, v15, v16 ]
+        pg_version: ${{ fromJson(inputs.pg-versions) }}
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
         with:
@@ -284,5 +288,5 @@ jobs:
       - name: Merge and upload coverage data
         if: |
           false &&
-          inputs.build-type == 'debug' && matrix.pg_version == 'v14'
+          inputs.build-type == 'debug' && matrix.pg_version == 'v16'
         uses: ./.github/actions/save-coverage-data
diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml b/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
index 3cf40e6153..c4df98f585 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
@@ -203,7 +203,8 @@ jobs:
       fail-fast: false
       matrix:
         arch: [ x64 ]
-        build-type: [ debug, release ]
+        # Do not build or run tests in debug for release branches
+        build-type: ${{ fromJson((startsWith(github.ref_name, 'release' && github.event_name == 'push')) && '["release"]' || '["debug", "release"]') }}
         include:
           - build-type: release
             arch: arm64
@@ -213,6 +214,8 @@ jobs:
       build-tools-image: ${{ needs.build-build-tools-image.outputs.image }}
       build-tag: ${{ needs.tag.outputs.build-tag }}
       build-type: ${{ matrix.build-type }}
+      # Run tests on all Postgres versions in release builds and only on the latest version in debug builds
+      pg-versions: ${{ matrix.build-type == 'release' && '["v14", "v15", "v16"]' || '["v16"]' }}
     secrets: inherit
 
   # Keep `benchmarks` job outside of `build-and-test-locally` workflow to make job failures non-blocking