diff --git a/cpp/cmake/thirdparty/get_dlpack.cmake b/cpp/cmake/thirdparty/get_dlpack.cmake
index 252d50c7af8..65b5f4ff2eb 100644
--- a/cpp/cmake/thirdparty/get_dlpack.cmake
+++ b/cpp/cmake/thirdparty/get_dlpack.cmake
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # =============================================================================
-# Copyright (c) 2020-2021, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+# Copyright (c) 2020-2022, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
 #
 # Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
 # in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 # This function finds dlpack and sets any additional necessary environment variables.
 function(find_and_configure_dlpack VERSION)
 
+  include(${rapids-cmake-dir}/find/generate_module.cmake)
   rapids_find_generate_module(DLPACK HEADER_NAMES dlpack.h)
 
   rapids_cpm_find(
diff --git a/python/cudf/CMakeLists.txt b/python/cudf/CMakeLists.txt
index 8a3224237b6..1c8bef42e4c 100644
--- a/python/cudf/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/python/cudf/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -51,6 +51,12 @@ if(FIND_CUDF_CPP)
   endif()
 
   find_package(cudf ${cudf_version} REQUIRED)
+
+  # an installed version of libcudf doesn't provide the dlpack headers so we need to download dlpack
+  # for the interop.pyx
+  include(rapids-cpm)
+  rapids_cpm_init()
+  include(../../cpp/cmake/thirdparty/get_dlpack.cmake)
 else()
   set(cudf_FOUND OFF)
 endif()
diff --git a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/CMakeLists.txt b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/CMakeLists.txt
index df17b8f2032..d58bdee02ad 100644
--- a/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/python/cudf/cudf/_lib/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -69,6 +69,11 @@ foreach(target IN LISTS targets_using_numpy)
   target_include_directories(${target} PRIVATE "${Python_NumPy_INCLUDE_DIRS}")
 endforeach()
 
+set(targets_using_dlpack interop)
+foreach(target IN LISTS targets_using_dlpack)
+  target_include_directories(${target} PRIVATE "${DLPACK_INCLUDE_DIR}")
+endforeach()
+
 add_subdirectory(io)
 add_subdirectory(nvtext)
 add_subdirectory(strings)