diff --git a/psiflow/execution.py b/psiflow/execution.py
index 9dff9e6..458095d 100644
--- a/psiflow/execution.py
+++ b/psiflow/execution.py
@@ -246,7 +246,7 @@ def parse_config(yaml_dict: dict):
                 provider_dict = _dict.pop(provider_keys[0])
 
                 # if provider requests multiple nodes, switch to (containerized) SrunLauncher
-                if provider_dict.pop("nodes_per_block", 1) > 1:
+                if provider_dict.get("nodes_per_block", 1) > 1:
                     assert (
                         provider_keys[0] == "SlurmProvider"
                     ), "multi-node blocks only supported for SLURM"