diff --git a/megatron/core/transformer/moe/token_dispatcher.py b/megatron/core/transformer/moe/token_dispatcher.py
index 6ea0d97160f..a9d1d5f50cc 100644
--- a/megatron/core/transformer/moe/token_dispatcher.py
+++ b/megatron/core/transformer/moe/token_dispatcher.py
@@ -1065,7 +1065,11 @@ def setup_metadata(self, routing_map: torch.Tensor, probs: torch.Tensor):
         self._original_num_tokens = num_tokens
 
         padded_num_tokens = num_tokens
-        if self.config.sequence_packing_scheduler is not None:
+        equalize_thd_token_counts = (
+            self.config.sequence_packing_scheduler is not None
+            or self.config.moe_hybridep_pad_variable_tokens
+        )
+        if equalize_thd_token_counts:
             # Use the actual tp_ep max so all ranks in the MoE communication
             # group pass the same token count to HybridEP.
             max_num_tokens_across_ep = torch.tensor(
@@ -1080,7 +1084,7 @@ def setup_metadata(self, routing_map: torch.Tensor, probs: torch.Tensor):
 
         routing_map = routing_map.reshape(num_tokens, self.num_experts)
         probs = probs.reshape(num_tokens, self.num_experts)
-        if self.config.sequence_packing_scheduler is not None and padded_num_tokens > num_tokens:
+        if equalize_thd_token_counts and padded_num_tokens > num_tokens:
             pad_rows = padded_num_tokens - num_tokens
             routing_map = torch.cat(
                 [routing_map, routing_map.new_zeros((pad_rows, self.num_experts))], dim=0
diff --git a/megatron/core/transformer/transformer_config.py b/megatron/core/transformer/transformer_config.py
index 10d9562f0bb..8c663e8bcbf 100644
--- a/megatron/core/transformer/transformer_config.py
+++ b/megatron/core/transformer/transformer_config.py
@@ -875,6 +875,13 @@ class TransformerConfig(ModelParallelConfig):
     moe_permute_fusion_into_hybridep: bool = False
     """Fuse token rearrangement ops during token dispatching for HybridEP."""
 
+    moe_hybridep_pad_variable_tokens: bool = False
+    """Pad uneven local token counts to the HybridEP group maximum before dispatch.
+
+    This is needed when the frontend supplies locally packed THD inputs whose token counts
+    can differ across ranks, without using Megatron Core's sequence_packing_scheduler.
+    """
+
     moe_per_layer_logging: bool = False
     """Enable per-layer logging for MoE, currently supports auxiliary loss and z loss."""
 
diff --git a/tests/unit_tests/models/test_hybrid_moe_model.py b/tests/unit_tests/models/test_hybrid_moe_model.py
index 6f59ec6b0b0..736c56ba034 100644
--- a/tests/unit_tests/models/test_hybrid_moe_model.py
+++ b/tests/unit_tests/models/test_hybrid_moe_model.py
@@ -341,6 +341,7 @@
     "moe_single_grouped_weight": False,
     "moe_single_grouped_bias": False,
     "head_wise_attn_gate": False,
+    "moe_hybridep_pad_variable_tokens": False,
 }
 # Fields to ignore entirely (ephemeral, environment-specific, very large).
 SKIP_FIELDS = set()