diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 73635b628c9ade5db7f1b0980cbf3d1f2370f180..182a245b4a7d7a379338496fba17ff94d6bbb809 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ It is bound to the `test` stage, and uses the following variables:
 | Name                  | description                            | default value     |
 | --------------------- | -------------------------------------- | ----------------- |
 | `MAVEN_DEPENDENCY_CHECK_ARGS` | Maven arguments for Dependency Check job | `org.owasp:dependency-check-maven:check -DretireJsAnalyzerEnabled=false -DassemblyAnalyzerEnabled=false` |
+| `MAVEN_DEPENDENCY_CHECK_DISABLED` | Set to `true` to disable this job | _none_ |
+
 
 A Dependency Check is a quite long operation and therefore the job is configured to be ran __manually__ by default.
 
diff --git a/templates/gitlab-ci-maven.yml b/templates/gitlab-ci-maven.yml
index aca1f4b1d080ee36829243f3b5ba9bd6270712bd..db8fa13b461ca3be47efbf04a415ef2eac101449 100644
--- a/templates/gitlab-ci-maven.yml
+++ b/templates/gitlab-ci-maven.yml
@@ -459,6 +459,9 @@ mvn-dependency-check:
     paths:
       - "${MAVEN_PROJECT_DIR}/**/target/dependency-check-report.*"
   rules:
+    # exclude if disable
+    - if: '$MAVEN_DEPENDENCY_CHECK_DISABLED == "true"'
+      when: never
     # on schedule: auto
     - if: '$CI_PIPELINE_SOURCE == "schedule"'
       allow_failure: true