diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/skein/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/skein/default.nix
index ff0884330b39..2f32aa1eeb78 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/skein/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/skein/default.nix
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 , callPackage
 , fetchPypi
 , isPy27
+, pythonOlder
 , lib
 , cryptography
 , grpcio
@@ -10,6 +11,8 @@
 , hadoop
 , pytestCheckHook
 , python
+, setuptools
+, versioneer
 }:
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
@@ -25,7 +28,8 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   jarHash = "sha256-x2KH6tnoG7sogtjrJvUaxy0PCEA8q/zneuI969oBOKo=";
   skeinJar = callPackage ./skeinjar.nix { inherit pname version jarHash; };
 
-  propagatedBuildInputs = [ cryptography grpcio pyyaml ];
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ cryptography grpcio pyyaml ]
+    ++ lib.optionals (!pythonOlder "3.12") [ setuptools ];
   buildInputs = [ grpcio-tools ];
 
   preBuild = ''
@@ -37,8 +41,17 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   postPatch = ''
     substituteInPlace skein/core.py --replace "'yarn'" "'${hadoop}/bin/yarn'" \
       --replace "else 'java'" "else '${hadoop.jdk}/bin/java'"
+    # Remove vendorized versioneer
+    rm versioneer.py
+  '' + lib.optionalString (!pythonOlder "3.12") ''
+    substituteInPlace skein/utils.py \
+      --replace-fail "distutils" "setuptools._distutils"
   '';
 
+  build-system = [
+    versioneer
+  ];
+
   pythonImportsCheck = [ "skein" ];
 
   nativeCheckInputs = [ pytestCheckHook ];