diff --git a/tools/bazel_stamp_vars.sh b/tools/bazel_stamp_vars.sh
index 2e70a4c1f0..3092f6c6cb 100755
--- a/tools/bazel_stamp_vars.sh
+++ b/tools/bazel_stamp_vars.sh
@@ -26,7 +26,10 @@ if [[ "$(git tag)" == "" ]]; then
   echo ""
 fi
 
-BUILD_SCM_VERSION_RAW=$(git describe --abbrev=7 --tags HEAD)
+# Only match the latest tag that is a version such as 6.0.0, 6.0.0-rc.5, etc...
+# This will ignore non-version tags which would break unit tests expecting a valid version
+# number in the package headers
+BUILD_SCM_VERSION_RAW=$(git describe --match [0-9].[0-9].[0-9]* --abbrev=7 --tags HEAD)
 
 # Find out if there are any uncommitted local changes
 # TODO(i): is it ok to use "--untracked-files=no" to ignore untracked files since they should not affect anything?