diff --git a/include/utils.h b/include/utils.h
index d3af5c3a9..1df3b169d 100644
--- a/include/utils.h
+++ b/include/utils.h
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
-// Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
+// Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 // Licensed under the MIT license.
 
 #pragma once
 
 #include <errno.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>  // for posix_memalign
 
 #include "common_includes.h"
 
@@ -259,7 +260,15 @@ inline void alloc_aligned(void **ptr, size_t size, size_t align)
     if (IS_ALIGNED(size, align) == 0)
         report_misalignment_of_requested_size(align);
 #ifndef _WINDOWS
-    *ptr = ::aligned_alloc(align, size);
+    // Use posix_memalign instead of aligned_alloc for tcmalloc compatibility.
+    // posix_memalign is more compatible with tcmalloc and avoids "invalid pointer" errors
+    // when freeing memory allocated with aligned_alloc and freed with tcmalloc's free().
+    int ret = posix_memalign(ptr, align, size);
+    if (ret != 0)
+    {
+        *ptr = nullptr;
+        report_memory_allocation_failure();
+    }
 #else
     *ptr = ::_aligned_malloc(size, align); // note the swapped arguments!
 #endif