nvm-global allows you to use nvm in production-like scenarios by installing it globally. nvm-global has been tested working on both Travis-CI and Jenkins, as well. Standard nvm has known difficulties working in multi-user or rooted environments.
Installation is the same as with standard nvm: https://github.com/creationix/nvm.
The only difference is that it's you'll need to assert your root privileges with
sudo, e.g.
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xtuple/nvm/master/install.sh | sudo bash
This will install into /usr/local/nvm