diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 6b0b5918b..1dfc0862e 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@
     <distMgmtStagingName>Apache Release Distribution Repository</distMgmtStagingName>
     <distMgmtStagingUrl>https://repository.apache.org/service/local/staging/deploy/maven2</distMgmtStagingUrl>
     <failIfNoTests>false</failIfNoTests>
-    <protobuf.version>2.5.0</protobuf.version>
+    <protobuf.version>3.16.3</protobuf.version>
     <protoc.path>${env.PROTOC_PATH}</protoc.path>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
     <scm.url>scm:git:https://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/incubator-tez.git</scm.url>