diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.d/buildtest-template.yml b/.gitlab-ci.d/buildtest-template.yml
index 5f2fc7e6f4..8c69c60d21 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.d/buildtest-template.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.d/buildtest-template.yml
@@ -8,8 +8,11 @@
     key: "$CI_JOB_NAME"
     when: always
   before_script:
+    - source scripts/ci/gitlab-ci-section
+    - section_start setup "Pre-script setup"
     - JOBS=$(expr $(nproc) + 1)
     - cat /packages.txt
+    - section_end setup
   script:
     - export CCACHE_BASEDIR="$(pwd)"
     - export CCACHE_DIR="$CCACHE_BASEDIR/ccache"
@@ -19,6 +22,7 @@
     - mkdir build
     - cd build
     - ccache --zero-stats
+    - section_start configure "Running configure"
     - ../configure --enable-werror --disable-docs --enable-fdt=system
           ${TARGETS:+--target-list="$TARGETS"}
           $CONFIGURE_ARGS ||
@@ -27,11 +31,16 @@
       then
         pyvenv/bin/meson configure . -Dbackend_max_links="$LD_JOBS" ;
       fi || exit 1;
+    - section_end configure
+    - section_start build "Building QEMU"
     - $MAKE -j"$JOBS"
+    - section_end build
+    - section_start test "Running tests"
     - if test -n "$MAKE_CHECK_ARGS";
       then
         $MAKE -j"$JOBS" $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS ;
       fi
+    - section_end test
     - ccache --show-stats
 
 # We jump some hoops in common_test_job_template to avoid
@@ -54,6 +63,8 @@
   stage: test
   image: $CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE/qemu/$IMAGE:$QEMU_CI_CONTAINER_TAG
   script:
+    - source scripts/ci/gitlab-ci-section
+    - section_start buildenv "Setting up to run tests"
     - scripts/git-submodule.sh update roms/SLOF
     - meson subprojects download $(cd build/subprojects && echo *)
     - cd build
@@ -63,7 +74,10 @@
     - if [ "x${QEMU_TEST_CACHE_DIR}" != "x" ]; then
         $MAKE precache-functional ;
       fi
+    - section_end buildenv
+    - section_start test "Running tests"
     - $MAKE NINJA=":" $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS
+    - section_end test
 
 .native_test_job_template:
   extends: .common_test_job_template
diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.d/buildtest.yml b/.gitlab-ci.d/buildtest.yml
index 2ab8c4806e..87848c2ffe 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.d/buildtest.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.d/buildtest.yml
@@ -188,6 +188,7 @@ build-previous-qemu:
     # Override the default flags as we need more to grab the old version
     GIT_FETCH_EXTRA_FLAGS: --prune --quiet
   before_script:
+    - source scripts/ci/gitlab-ci-section
     - export QEMU_PREV_VERSION="$(sed 's/\([0-9.]*\)\.[0-9]*/v\1.0/' VERSION)"
     - git remote add upstream https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu
     - git fetch upstream refs/tags/$QEMU_PREV_VERSION:refs/tags/$QEMU_PREV_VERSION
diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.d/crossbuild-template.yml b/.gitlab-ci.d/crossbuild-template.yml
index d1cb7a35db..45a9810355 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.d/crossbuild-template.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.d/crossbuild-template.yml
@@ -9,8 +9,11 @@
     when: always
   timeout: 80m
   before_script:
+    - source scripts/ci/gitlab-ci-section
+    - section_start setup "Pre-script setup"
     - JOBS=$(expr $(nproc) + 1)
     - cat /packages.txt
+    - section_end setup
   script:
     - export CCACHE_BASEDIR="$(pwd)"
     - export CCACHE_DIR="$CCACHE_BASEDIR/ccache"
@@ -19,22 +22,30 @@
     - mkdir build
     - cd build
     - ccache --zero-stats
+    - section_start configure "Running configure"
     - ../configure --enable-werror --disable-docs --enable-fdt=system
         --disable-user $QEMU_CONFIGURE_OPTS $EXTRA_CONFIGURE_OPTS
         --target-list-exclude="arm-softmmu
           i386-softmmu microblaze-softmmu mips-softmmu mipsel-softmmu
           mips64-softmmu ppc-softmmu riscv32-softmmu sh4-softmmu
           sparc-softmmu xtensa-softmmu $CROSS_SKIP_TARGETS"
+    - section_end configure
+    - section_start build "Building QEMU"
     - make -j"$JOBS" all check-build
+    - section_end build
+    - section_start test "Running tests"
     - if test -n "$MAKE_CHECK_ARGS";
       then
         $MAKE -j"$JOBS" $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS ;
       fi
+    - section_end test
+    - section_start installer "Building the installer"
     - if grep -q "EXESUF=.exe" config-host.mak;
       then make installer;
       version="$(git describe --match v[0-9]* 2>/dev/null || git rev-parse --short HEAD)";
       mv -v qemu-setup*.exe qemu-setup-${version}.exe;
       fi
+    - section_end installer
     - ccache --show-stats
 
 # Job to cross-build specific accelerators.
@@ -52,6 +63,7 @@
       - ccache/
     key: "$CI_JOB_NAME"
   before_script:
+    - source scripts/ci/gitlab-ci-section
     - JOBS=$(expr $(nproc) + 1)
   script:
     - export CCACHE_BASEDIR="$(pwd)"
@@ -60,13 +72,19 @@
     - export PATH="$CCACHE_WRAPPERSDIR:$PATH"
     - mkdir build
     - cd build
+    - section_start configure "Running configure"
     - ../configure --enable-werror --disable-docs $QEMU_CONFIGURE_OPTS
         --disable-tools --enable-${ACCEL:-kvm} $EXTRA_CONFIGURE_OPTS
+    - section_end configure
+    - section_start build "Building QEMU"
     - make -j"$JOBS" all check-build
+    - section_end build
+    - section_start test "Running tests"
     - if test -n "$MAKE_CHECK_ARGS";
       then
         $MAKE -j"$JOBS" $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS ;
       fi
+    - section_end test
 
 .cross_user_build_job:
   extends: .base_job_template
@@ -77,6 +95,7 @@
       - ccache/
     key: "$CI_JOB_NAME"
   before_script:
+    - source scripts/ci/gitlab-ci-section
     - JOBS=$(expr $(nproc) + 1)
   script:
     - export CCACHE_BASEDIR="$(pwd)"
@@ -84,16 +103,22 @@
     - export CCACHE_MAXSIZE="500M"
     - mkdir build
     - cd build
+    - section_start configure "Running configure"
     - ../configure --enable-werror --disable-docs $QEMU_CONFIGURE_OPTS
         --disable-system --target-list-exclude="aarch64_be-linux-user
           alpha-linux-user m68k-linux-user microblazeel-linux-user
           or1k-linux-user ppc-linux-user sparc-linux-user
           xtensa-linux-user $CROSS_SKIP_TARGETS"
+    - section_end configure
+    - section_start build "Building QEMU"
     - make -j"$JOBS" all check-build
+    - section_end build
+    - section_start test "Running tests"
     - if test -n "$MAKE_CHECK_ARGS";
       then
         $MAKE -j"$JOBS" $MAKE_CHECK_ARGS ;
       fi
+    - section_end test
 
 # We can still run some tests on some of our cross build jobs. They can add this
 # template to their extends to save the build logs and test results
diff --git a/scripts/ci/gitlab-ci-section b/scripts/ci/gitlab-ci-section
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9bbe80420d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/ci/gitlab-ci-section
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2024 Linaro Ltd
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
+
+# gitlab-ci-section: This is a shell script fragment which defines
+# functions section_start and section_end which will emit marker lines
+# that GitLab will interpret as the beginning or end of a "collapsible
+# section" in a CI job log. See
+# https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/ci/yaml/script.html#expand-and-collapse-job-log-sections
+#
+# This is intended to be sourced in the before_script section of
+# a CI config; the section_start and section_end functions will
+# then be available for use in the before_script and script sections.
+
+# Section names are [-_.A-Za-z0-9] and the section_start pairs with
+# a section_end with the same section name.
+# The description can be any printable text without newlines; this is
+# what will appear in the log.
+
+# Usage:
+# section_start section_name "Description of the section"
+section_start () {
+    printf "section_start:%s:%s\r\e[0K%s\n" "$(date +%s)" "$1" "$2"
+}
+
+# Usage:
+# section_end section_name
+section_end () {
+    printf "section_end:%s:%s\r\e[0K\n" "$(date +%s)" "$1"
+}
