diff --git a/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/cli/tasks/toolkit.build.ts b/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/cli/tasks/toolkit.build.ts
index 2711425b2a4..4c4510545c0 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/cli/tasks/toolkit.build.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/cli/tasks/toolkit.build.ts
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ const copyFiles = () => {
     'src/config/tsconfig.plugin.local.json',
     'src/config/eslint.plugin.js',
     'src/config/styles.mock.js',
+    'src/config/jest.babel.config.js',
     'src/config/jest.plugin.config.local.js',
     'src/config/matchMedia.js',
     'src/config/react-inlinesvg.tsx',
diff --git a/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/config/jest.babel.config.js b/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/config/jest.babel.config.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..58098923886
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/config/jest.babel.config.js
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+// Transform es modules to prevent `SyntaxError: Cannot use import statement outside a module`
+module.exports = { presets: [['@babel/preset-env', { targets: { esmodules: false, node: 'current' } }]] };
diff --git a/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/config/jest.plugin.config.ts b/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/config/jest.plugin.config.ts
index 8cb608c54d4..e5809e0aaec 100644
--- a/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/config/jest.plugin.config.ts
+++ b/packages/grafana-toolkit/src/config/jest.plugin.config.ts
@@ -83,7 +83,10 @@ export const jestConfig = (baseDir: string = process.cwd()) => {
       '<rootDir>/spec/**/*.{spec,test,jest}.{js,jsx,ts,tsx}',
     ],
     transform: {
-      '^.+\\.jsx?$': require.resolve('babel-jest'),
+      '^.+\\.(js|jsx|mjs)$': [
+        require.resolve('babel-jest'),
+        { configFile: path.resolve(__dirname, './jest.babel.config.js') },
+      ],
       '^.+\\.tsx?$': require.resolve('ts-jest'),
     },
     transformIgnorePatterns: [