diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index ddf0a206c..e7deca11b 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -42,13 +42,44 @@ jobs:
           python-version: '3.11'
         - linux: test-cov-xdist
           coverage: 'codecov'
+  data:
+    name: retrieve data
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    outputs:
+      data_path: ${{ steps.data.outputs.path }}
+      data_hash: ${{ steps.data_hash.outputs.hash }}
+    steps:
+      # webbpsf:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+      - id: data
+        run: |
+          echo "path=/tmp/data" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+          echo "webbpsf_url=https://stsci.box.com/shared/static/n1fealx9q0m6sdnass6wnyfikvxtc0zz.gz" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+      - run: |
+          mkdir -p tmp/data/
+          mkdir -p ${{ steps.data.outputs.path }}
+      - run: wget ${{ steps.data.outputs.webbpsf_url }} -O tmp/minimal-webbpsf-data.tar.gz
+      - run: tar -xzvf tmp/minimal-webbpsf-data.tar.gz -C tmp/data/
+      - id: data_hash
+        run: echo "hash=${{ hashFiles( 'tmp/data' ) }}" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
+      - run: mv tmp/data/* ${{ steps.data.outputs.path }}
+      - uses: actions/cache@v3
+        with:
+          path: ${{ steps.data.outputs.path }}
+          key: data-${{ steps.data_hash.outputs.hash }}
   test_downstream:
     uses: OpenAstronomy/github-actions-workflows/.github/workflows/tox.yml@main
+    needs: [ data ]
     with:
       setenv: |
         CRDS_PATH: /tmp/crds_cache
         CRDS_CLIENT_RETRY_COUNT: 3
-        CRDS_CLIENT_RETRY_DELAY_SECONDS: 20
+        CRDS_CLIENT_RETRY_DELAY_SECONDS: 20 
+        WEBBPSF_PATH: ${{ needs.data.outputs.data_path }}/webbpsf-data
+      cache-path: ${{ needs.data.outputs.data_path }}
+      cache-key: ${{ needs.data.outputs.data_hash }}
       envs: |
         - linux: test-jwst-cov-xdist
         - linux: test-romancal-cov-xdist