diff --git a/containers/base/Containerfile b/containers/base/Containerfile
index f6e64dd7..513bd880 100644
--- a/containers/base/Containerfile
+++ b/containers/base/Containerfile
@@ -13,7 +13,33 @@
 # License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
 # under the License.
 
-FROM registry.access.redhat.com/ubi10/ubi-minimal:latest
+ARG UBI_BASE_IMAGE=registry.access.redhat.com/ubi10/ubi-minimal:latest
+
+# --- Build stage: compile wheels from source ---
+FROM ${UBI_BASE_IMAGE} AS build
+
+ARG CONSTRAINTS_FILE=requirements.lock
+COPY ${CONSTRAINTS_FILE} /deps-upper-constraints.txt
+
+# We can force build from source of all packages optionally
+ARG PIP_NO_BINARY=""
+ENV PIP_NO_BINARY=${PIP_NO_BINARY}
+
+COPY builddeps.txt /tmp/builddeps.txt
+RUN pkgs=$(cat /tmp/builddeps.txt | grep -v '^#' | grep -v '^$' | tr '\n' ' ') && \
+    if [ -n "${pkgs}" ]; then microdnf -y install ${pkgs}; microdnf clean all; fi
+
+COPY pythonbuilddeps.txt /tmp/pythonbuilddeps.txt
+RUN pkgs=$(cat /tmp/pythonbuilddeps.txt | grep -v '^#' | grep -v '^$' | tr '\n' ' ') && \
+    if [ -n "${pkgs}" ]; then pip3 install --no-cache-dir -c /deps-upper-constraints.txt ${pkgs}; fi
+
+# Second, build the wheels for the dependencies and place them in a different directory
+RUN pip3 wheel --no-cache-dir --no-deps \
+          --find-links=/wheels/pkgs \
+          --wheel-dir=/wheels/deps -r /deps-upper-constraints.txt
+
+# --- Runtime stage ---
+FROM ${UBI_BASE_IMAGE}
 
 LABEL maintainer="OpenStack Kubernetes Operator team"
 
@@ -28,6 +54,7 @@ ENV REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE=/etc/pki/ca-trust/extracted/pem/tls-ca-bundle.pem
 USER root
 
 COPY ${CONSTRAINTS_FILE} /deps-upper-constraints.txt
+# SKIP IN DOWNSTREAM
 COPY rpms.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/rpms.repo
 
 COPY bindeps.txt /tmp/bindeps.txt
@@ -38,18 +65,21 @@ RUN if [ -f "/etc/yum.repos.d/ubi.repo" ]; then rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/ubi.repo
 # As this was introduced RHEL only https://redhat.atlassian.net/browse/RHEL-30258 and later bundled differently
 # for CentOS https://redhat.atlassian.net/browse/RHEL-105298
 # remove this until fixed in CentOS-10-stream
+# SKIP IN DOWNSTREAM
 RUN rpm -e openssl-fips-provider-so --nodeps || true
 
 RUN pkgs=$(cat /tmp/bindeps.txt | grep -v '^#' | grep -v '^$' | tr '\n' ' ') && \
     if [ -n "${pkgs}" ]; then microdnf -y install ${pkgs} && microdnf clean all && rm -rf /var/cache/dnf; fi && \
     rm /tmp/bindeps.txt
 
+COPY --from=build /wheels /wheels
 COPY pythondeps.txt /tmp/pythondeps.txt
 RUN extrapkgs=$(cat /tmp/pythondeps.txt | grep -v '^#' | grep -v '^$' | tr '\n' ' ') && \
     pip3 install --no-cache-dir --prefix=/usr \
       -c /deps-upper-constraints.txt \
+      --find-links=/wheels/deps \
       ${extrapkgs} && \
-    rm -rf /tmp/pythondeps.txt
+    rm -rf /wheels /tmp/pythondeps.txt
 
 # DNF configuration
 RUN crudini --set /etc/dnf/dnf.conf main clean_requirements_on_remove True && \
@@ -83,7 +113,8 @@ RUN touch /usr/local/bin/kolla_extend_start && \
     chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/kolla_extend_start
 
 # Fix nsswitch.conf
-RUN sed -ri '/^(passwd:|group:)/ s/systemd//g' /etc/nsswitch.conf
+RUN if [ -f "/etc/nsswitch.conf" ]; then sed -ri '/^(passwd:|group:)/ s/systemd//g' /etc/nsswitch.conf; fi
+RUN if [ ! -f "/etc/localtime" ]; then ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/UTC /etc/localtime; fi
 
 # Create /openstack directory (convention from tcib)
 RUN mkdir -p /openstack
diff --git a/containers/base/bindeps.txt b/containers/base/bindeps.txt
index c1871e5b..998ee421 100644
--- a/containers/base/bindeps.txt
+++ b/containers/base/bindeps.txt
@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@ curl
 glibc-langpack-en
 procps-ng
 python3
+python3-pip
 sudo
+tzdata
 util-linux-user
 which
-python3-pip
diff --git a/containers/base/builddeps.txt b/containers/base/builddeps.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..59b6914b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/containers/base/builddeps.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Build dependencies for compiling dumb-init C extension
+gcc
+python3-devel
+python3-pip
+python3-wheel
diff --git a/containers/base/buildrequirements.lock.master b/containers/base/buildrequirements.lock.master
index 0b99a463..7f4e2fe8 100644
--- a/containers/base/buildrequirements.lock.master
+++ b/containers/base/buildrequirements.lock.master
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 flit-core==4.0.2
 packaging==26.3
-setuptools-scm==10.2.1
-vcs-versioning==2.3.1
+setuptools-scm==10.2.2
+vcs-versioning==2.3.2
 wheel==0.48.0
 
 # The following packages are considered to be unsafe in a requirements file:
diff --git a/containers/base/pythonbuilddeps.txt b/containers/base/pythonbuilddeps.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1d45dc6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/containers/base/pythonbuilddeps.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+pbr
diff --git a/containers/base/pythondeps.txt b/containers/base/pythondeps.txt
index e9feca3b..0df04681 100644
--- a/containers/base/pythondeps.txt
+++ b/containers/base/pythondeps.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 crudini
-pbr
 dumb-init
+pbr
diff --git a/containers/base/rpms.in.yaml b/containers/base/rpms.in.yaml
index 14bc5878..f088e32f 100644
--- a/containers/base/rpms.in.yaml
+++ b/containers/base/rpms.in.yaml
@@ -11,10 +11,14 @@ arches:
 packages:
   - ca-certificates
   - curl
+  - gcc
   - glibc-langpack-en
   - procps-ng
   - python3
+  - python3-devel
   - python3-pip
+  - python3-wheel
   - sudo
+  - tzdata
   - util-linux-user
   - which