diff --git a/cumulusci/tasks/robotframework/robotframework.py b/cumulusci/tasks/robotframework/robotframework.py
index fb8cd61683..5b3b54ec67 100644
--- a/cumulusci/tasks/robotframework/robotframework.py
+++ b/cumulusci/tasks/robotframework/robotframework.py
@@ -14,7 +14,11 @@
     TaskOptionsError,
 )
 from cumulusci.core.tasks import BaseTask
-from cumulusci.core.utils import process_bool_arg, process_list_arg
+from cumulusci.core.utils import (
+    process_bool_arg,
+    process_list_arg,
+    process_list_of_pairs_dict_arg,
+)
 from cumulusci.robotframework.utils import set_pdb_trace
 from cumulusci.tasks.robotframework.debugger import DebugListener
 from cumulusci.tasks.salesforce import BaseSalesforceTask
@@ -113,7 +117,11 @@ def _init_options(self, kwargs):
             self.options["vars"] = []
 
         # Initialize options as a dict
-        if "options" not in self.options:
+        if "options" in self.options:
+            self.options["options"] = process_list_of_pairs_dict_arg(
+                self.options["options"]
+            )
+        else:
             self.options["options"] = {}
 
         # processes needs to be an integer.
diff --git a/cumulusci/tasks/robotframework/tests/test_robotframework.py b/cumulusci/tasks/robotframework/tests/test_robotframework.py
index c1a4f2ab8a..9c81506e5f 100644
--- a/cumulusci/tasks/robotframework/tests/test_robotframework.py
+++ b/cumulusci/tasks/robotframework/tests/test_robotframework.py
@@ -88,6 +88,16 @@ def test_list_args(self):
         for option in ("test", "include", "exclude", "vars", "suites", "skip"):
             assert isinstance(task.options[option], list)
 
+    def test_options_converted_to_dict(self):
+        task = create_task(
+            Robot,
+            {
+                "suites": "test",  # required, or the task will raise an exception
+                "options": "outputdir:/tmp/example,loglevel:DEBUG",
+            },
+        )
+        assert isinstance(task.options["options"], dict)
+
     def test_process_arg_requires_int(self):
         """Verify we throw a useful error for non-int "processes" option"""