diff --git oak-segment-tar/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/segment/scheduler/LockBasedScheduler.java oak-segment-tar/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/segment/scheduler/LockBasedScheduler.java
index 81bad80ecb..bdd9271076 100644
--- oak-segment-tar/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/segment/scheduler/LockBasedScheduler.java
+++ oak-segment-tar/src/main/java/org/apache/jackrabbit/oak/segment/scheduler/LockBasedScheduler.java
@@ -118,6 +118,11 @@ public class LockBasedScheduler implements Scheduler {
      * create a checkpoint
      */
     private final int checkpointsLockWaitTime = Integer.getInteger("oak.checkpoints.lockWaitTime", 10);
+    
+    /**
+     * Flag controlling the percentile of the commit time used when returning the current head state.
+     */
+    private final int schedulerHeadLockWaitPercentile = Integer.getInteger("oak.scheduler.head.lockWaitPercentile", 50);
 
     static final String ROOT = "root";
 
@@ -155,7 +160,7 @@ public class LockBasedScheduler implements Scheduler {
 
     @Override
     public NodeState getHeadNodeState() {
-        long delay = (long) commitTimeStats.getPercentile(50);
+        long delay = (long) commitTimeStats.getPercentile(schedulerHeadLockWaitPercentile);
         try {
             if (commitSemaphore.tryAcquire(delay, NANOSECONDS)) {
                 try {