diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index fb7a71e00..f35a06cd1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 ## HDMF 3.13.0 (March 20, 2024)
 
 ### Enhancements
+- Unwrap `TermSetWrapper` within the builder to support different backends more efficiently. @mavaylon1 [#1070](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1070)
 - Added docs page that lists limitations of support for the HDMF specification language. @rly [#1069](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1069)
 - Added warning when using `add_row` or `add_column` to add a ragged array to `DynamicTable` without an index parameter. @stephprince [#1066](https://github.com/hdmf-dev/hdmf/pull/1066)
 
diff --git a/src/hdmf/backends/hdf5/h5tools.py b/src/hdmf/backends/hdf5/h5tools.py
index 7a644f0b7..05ce36e13 100644
--- a/src/hdmf/backends/hdf5/h5tools.py
+++ b/src/hdmf/backends/hdf5/h5tools.py
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 from ...build import (Builder, GroupBuilder, DatasetBuilder, LinkBuilder, BuildManager, RegionBuilder,
                       ReferenceBuilder, TypeMap, ObjectMapper)
 from ...container import Container
-from ...term_set import TermSetWrapper
 from ...data_utils import AbstractDataChunkIterator
 from ...spec import RefSpec, DtypeSpec, NamespaceCatalog
 from ...utils import docval, getargs, popargs, get_data_shape, get_docval, StrDataset
@@ -1103,10 +1102,6 @@ def write_dataset(self, **kwargs):  # noqa: C901
             data = data.data
         else:
             options['io_settings'] = {}
-        if isinstance(data, TermSetWrapper):
-            # This is for when the wrapped item is a dataset
-            # (refer to objectmapper.py for wrapped attributes)
-            data = data.value
         attributes = builder.attributes
         options['dtype'] = builder.dtype
         dset = None
diff --git a/src/hdmf/build/objectmapper.py b/src/hdmf/build/objectmapper.py
index b8e50d104..fed678d41 100644
--- a/src/hdmf/build/objectmapper.py
+++ b/src/hdmf/build/objectmapper.py
@@ -752,7 +752,11 @@ def build(self, **kwargs):
                                           % (container.__class__.__name__, container.name, repr(source)))
                         try:
                             # use spec_dtype from self.spec when spec_ext does not specify dtype
-                            bldr_data, dtype = self.convert_dtype(spec, container.data, spec_dtype=spec_dtype)
+                            if isinstance(container.data, TermSetWrapper):
+                                data = container.data.value
+                            else:
+                                data = container.data
+                            bldr_data, dtype = self.convert_dtype(spec, data, spec_dtype=spec_dtype)
                         except Exception as ex:
                             msg = 'could not resolve dtype for %s \'%s\'' % (type(container).__name__, container.name)
                             raise Exception(msg) from ex
diff --git a/tests/unit/build_tests/mapper_tests/test_build.py b/tests/unit/build_tests/mapper_tests/test_build.py
index 8590f29f2..b90ad6f1a 100644
--- a/tests/unit/build_tests/mapper_tests/test_build.py
+++ b/tests/unit/build_tests/mapper_tests/test_build.py
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 from abc import ABCMeta, abstractmethod
 
 import numpy as np
-from hdmf import Container, Data
+from hdmf import Container, Data, TermSet, TermSetWrapper
+from hdmf.common import VectorData, get_type_map
 from hdmf.build import ObjectMapper, BuildManager, TypeMap, GroupBuilder, DatasetBuilder
 from hdmf.build.warnings import DtypeConversionWarning
 from hdmf.spec import GroupSpec, AttributeSpec, DatasetSpec, SpecCatalog, SpecNamespace, NamespaceCatalog, Spec
@@ -10,6 +11,29 @@
 
 from tests.unit.helpers.utils import CORE_NAMESPACE
 
+try:
+    import linkml_runtime  # noqa: F401
+    LINKML_INSTALLED = True
+except ImportError:
+    LINKML_INSTALLED = False
+
+
+class TestUnwrapTermSetWrapperBuild(TestCase):
+    """
+    Test the unwrapping of TermSetWrapper on regular datasets within build.
+    """
+    def setUp(self):
+        if not LINKML_INSTALLED:
+            self.skipTest("optional LinkML module is not installed")
+
+    def test_unwrap(self):
+        manager = BuildManager(get_type_map())
+        terms = TermSet(term_schema_path='tests/unit/example_test_term_set.yaml')
+        build = manager.build(VectorData(name='test_data',
+                                         description='description',
+                                         data=TermSetWrapper(value=['Homo sapiens'], termset= terms)))
+
+        self.assertEqual(build.data, ['Homo sapiens'])
 
 # TODO: test build of extended group/dataset that modifies an attribute dtype (commented out below), shape, value, etc.
 # by restriction. also check that attributes cannot be deleted or scope expanded.