diff --git a/google/cloud/bigquery/retry.py b/google/cloud/bigquery/retry.py
index d0830ed13..b01c0662c 100644
--- a/google/cloud/bigquery/retry.py
+++ b/google/cloud/bigquery/retry.py
@@ -34,7 +34,12 @@
     auth_exceptions.TransportError,
 )
 
-_DEFAULT_JOB_DEADLINE = 60.0 * 10.0  # seconds
+_DEFAULT_RETRY_DEADLINE = 10.0 * 60.0  # 10 minutes
+
+# Allow for a few retries after the API request times out. This relevant for
+# rateLimitExceeded errors, which can be raised either by the Google load
+# balancer or the BigQuery job server.
+_DEFAULT_JOB_DEADLINE = 3.0 * _DEFAULT_RETRY_DEADLINE
 
 
 def _should_retry(exc):
@@ -51,7 +56,7 @@ def _should_retry(exc):
     return reason in _RETRYABLE_REASONS
 
 
-DEFAULT_RETRY = retry.Retry(predicate=_should_retry, deadline=600.0)
+DEFAULT_RETRY = retry.Retry(predicate=_should_retry, deadline=_DEFAULT_RETRY_DEADLINE)
 """The default retry object.
 
 Any method with a ``retry`` parameter will be retried automatically,
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_retry.py b/tests/unit/test_retry.py
index 60d04de89..1109b7ff2 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_retry.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_retry.py
@@ -125,6 +125,7 @@ def test_DEFAULT_JOB_RETRY_predicate():
 
 
 def test_DEFAULT_JOB_RETRY_deadline():
-    from google.cloud.bigquery.retry import DEFAULT_JOB_RETRY
+    from google.cloud.bigquery.retry import DEFAULT_JOB_RETRY, DEFAULT_RETRY
 
-    assert DEFAULT_JOB_RETRY._deadline == 600
+    # Make sure we can retry the job at least once.
+    assert DEFAULT_JOB_RETRY._deadline > DEFAULT_RETRY._deadline