diff --git a/.github/actions/docker-build-and-push/action.yml b/.github/actions/docker-build-and-push/action.yml
index c670a966c1..b3c6eb7ef6 100644
--- a/.github/actions/docker-build-and-push/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/docker-build-and-push/action.yml
@@ -19,6 +19,10 @@ inputs:
   prerelease:
     required: true
     description: indicates whether or not this is a pre-release (not a release) build
+  python-version:
+    required: false
+    description: Python version to use (defaults to 3.12)
+    default: '3.12'
 runs:
   using: "composite"
   steps:
@@ -45,6 +49,7 @@ runs:
         fi
         docker buildx build \
           --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 \
+          --build-arg PYTHON_VERSION=${{ inputs.python-version }} \
           -t ${{ inputs.registry }}/${{ inputs.image-name }}:${{ inputs.tag }} \
           ${LATEST_TAG} -f ${{ inputs.docker-file }} --push .
       shell: bash
diff --git a/DEVELOPMENT.md b/DEVELOPMENT.md
index 2d58f024a7..b940720aa0 100644
--- a/DEVELOPMENT.md
+++ b/DEVELOPMENT.md
@@ -6,17 +6,39 @@ Documentation for developing the inference scheduler.
 
 - [Make] `v4`+
 - [Golang] `v1.24`+
+- [Python] `v3.12`
 - [Docker] (or [Podman])
 - [Kubernetes in Docker (KIND)]
 - [Kustomize]
 
 [Make]:https://www.gnu.org/software/make/
 [Golang]:https://go.dev/
+[Python]:https://www.python.org/
 [Docker]:https://www.docker.com/
 [Podman]:https://podman.io/
 [Kubernetes in Docker (KIND)]:https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind
 [Kustomize]:https://kubectl.docs.kubernetes.io/installation/kustomize/
 
+### Python Version Configuration
+
+The project uses Python 3.12 by default, but this can be configured:
+
+**For local development:**
+`PYTHON_VERSION` in the Makefile set which Python version is used.
+
+**For Docker builds:**
+The Python version is parameterized in the Dockerfile via the `PYTHON_VERSION` build argument, which defaults to 3.12. To build with a different Python version:
+
+```bash
+PYTHON_VERSION=3.13 make image-build
+
+# Or directly with Docker
+docker build --build-arg PYTHON_VERSION=3.13 -f Dockerfile.epp .
+```
+
+**For CI/CD:**
+Workflow uses Python 3.12 by default. The version can be set by modifying the `python-version` input in workflow file.
+
 ## Kind Development Environment
 
 The following deployment creates a [Kubernetes in Docker (KIND)] cluster with an inference scheduler using a Gateway API implementation, connected to the vLLM simulator.
diff --git a/Dockerfile.epp b/Dockerfile.epp
index 6b23cf3570..915a34a0af 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.epp
+++ b/Dockerfile.epp
@@ -4,13 +4,18 @@ FROM quay.io/projectquay/golang:1.24 AS builder
 
 ARG TARGETOS
 ARG TARGETARCH
+ARG PYTHON_VERSION=3.12
+
+ENV PYTHON=python${PYTHON_VERSION}
+ENV PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib64/${PYTHON}/site-packages:/usr/lib/${PYTHON}/site-packages
 
 # Install build tools
 # The builder is based on UBI8, so we need epel-release-8.
+# ${PYTHON}-devel needed for CGO compilation (Python headers and ${PYTHON}-config for linker flags)
 RUN dnf install -y 'https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm' && \
-    dnf install -y gcc-c++ libstdc++ libstdc++-devel clang zeromq-devel pkgconfig python3.12-devel python3.12-pip git && \
+    dnf install -y gcc-c++ libstdc++ libstdc++-devel clang zeromq-devel pkgconfig ${PYTHON}-devel ${PYTHON}-pip git && \
     dnf clean all
-# python3.12-devel needed for CGO compilation (Python headers and python3.12-config for linker flags)
+
 
 WORKDIR /workspace
 
@@ -24,14 +29,15 @@ COPY pkg/ pkg/
 
 RUN go mod download
 
-# Copy Python wrapper and requirements from kv-cache-manager dependency
+# Copy Python wrapper and requirements from llm-d-kv-cache-manager dependency
 # Extract version dynamically and copy to a known location
+# We need to keep llm-d-kv-cache-manager as go module path is kept the old name
 RUN KVCACHE_MANAGER_VERSION=$(go list -m -f '{{.Version}}' github.com/llm-d/llm-d-kv-cache-manager) && \
-    mkdir -p /workspace/kv-cache-manager-wrapper && \
+    mkdir -p /workspace/kv-cache && \
     cp /go/pkg/mod/github.com/llm-d/llm-d-kv-cache-manager@${KVCACHE_MANAGER_VERSION}/pkg/preprocessing/chat_completions/render_jinja_template_wrapper.py \
-       /workspace/kv-cache-manager-wrapper/ && \
+       /workspace/kv-cache/render_jinja_template_wrapper.py && \
     cp /go/pkg/mod/github.com/llm-d/llm-d-kv-cache-manager@${KVCACHE_MANAGER_VERSION}/pkg/preprocessing/chat_completions/requirements.txt \
-       /workspace/kv-cache-manager-wrapper/requirements.txt
+       /workspace/kv-cache/requirements.txt
 
 # HuggingFace tokenizer bindings (static lib)
 RUN mkdir -p lib
@@ -48,53 +54,56 @@ RUN ranlib lib/*.a
 ENV CGO_ENABLED=1
 ENV GOOS=${TARGETOS:-linux}
 ENV GOARCH=${TARGETARCH}
-ENV PYTHON=python3.12
-ENV PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib64/python3.12/site-packages:/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages
+
 
 ARG COMMIT_SHA=unknown
 ARG BUILD_REF
-RUN export CGO_CFLAGS="$(python3.12-config --cflags) -I/workspace/lib" && \
-    export CGO_LDFLAGS="$(python3.12-config --ldflags --embed) -L/workspace/lib -ltokenizers -ldl -lm" && \
+RUN CGO_CFLAGS="$(${PYTHON}-config --cflags) -I/workspace/lib" && \
+    CGO_LDFLAGS="$(${PYTHON}-config --ldflags --embed) -L/workspace/lib -ltokenizers -ldl -lm" && \
+    export CGO_CFLAGS CGO_LDFLAGS && \
     go build -a -o bin/epp -ldflags="-extldflags '-L$(pwd)/lib' -X sigs.k8s.io/gateway-api-inference-extension/version.CommitSHA=${COMMIT_SHA} -X sigs.k8s.io/gateway-api-inference-extension/version.BuildRef=${BUILD_REF}" cmd/epp/main.go
 
 # Runtime stage
 # Use ubi9 as a minimal base image to package the manager binary
 # Refer to https://catalog.redhat.com/software/containers/ubi9/ubi-minimal/615bd9b4075b022acc111bf5 for more details
-FROM registry.access.redhat.com/ubi9/ubi-minimal:latest
+FROM registry.access.redhat.com/ubi9/ubi-minimal:9.7
+ARG PYTHON_VERSION=3.12
 WORKDIR /
 COPY --from=builder /workspace/bin/epp /app/epp
 
 USER root
+
+ENV PYTHON=python${PYTHON_VERSION}
 # Install zeromq runtime library and Python runtime needed by the manager.
 # The final image is UBI9, so we need epel-release-9.
 # Using microdnf for minimal image size
 RUN curl -L -o /tmp/epel-release.rpm https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm && \
     rpm -i /tmp/epel-release.rpm && \
     rm /tmp/epel-release.rpm && \
-    microdnf install -y --setopt=install_weak_deps=0 zeromq python3.12 python3.12-libs python3.12-pip && \
+    microdnf install -y --setopt=install_weak_deps=0 zeromq ${PYTHON} ${PYTHON}-libs ${PYTHON}-pip && \
     microdnf clean all && \
     rm -rf /var/cache/yum /var/lib/yum && \
-    ln -sf /usr/bin/python3.12 /usr/bin/python3 && \
-    ln -sf /usr/bin/python3.12 /usr/bin/python
-# Note: python3.12 package does not automatically create python3/python symlinks - they must be created manually
+    # Note: ${PYTHON} package does not automatically create python3/python symlinks - they must be created manually
+    ln -sf /usr/bin/${PYTHON} /usr/bin/python3 && \
+    ln -sf /usr/bin/${PYTHON} /usr/bin/python
+
 
 # Install wrapper as a module in site-packages
-RUN mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/
-COPY --from=builder /workspace/kv-cache-manager-wrapper/render_jinja_template_wrapper.py /usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages/
+RUN mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/${PYTHON}/site-packages/
+COPY --from=builder /workspace/kv-cache/render_jinja_template_wrapper.py /usr/local/lib/${PYTHON}/site-packages/
 
 # Python deps (no cache, single target) – filter out torch
 ENV PIP_NO_CACHE_DIR=1 PIP_DISABLE_PIP_VERSION_CHECK=1
-COPY --from=builder /workspace/kv-cache-manager-wrapper/requirements.txt /tmp/requirements.txt
+COPY --from=builder /workspace/kv-cache/requirements.txt /tmp/requirements.txt
 RUN sed '/^torch\b/d' /tmp/requirements.txt > /tmp/requirements.notorch.txt && \
-    python3.12 -m pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade pip setuptools wheel && \
-    python3.12 -m pip install --no-cache-dir --target /usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages -r /tmp/requirements.notorch.txt && \
-    python3.12 -m pip install --no-cache-dir --target /usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages PyYAML && \
+    ${PYTHON} -m pip install --no-cache-dir --upgrade pip setuptools wheel && \
+    ${PYTHON} -m pip install --no-cache-dir --target /usr/local/lib/${PYTHON}/site-packages -r /tmp/requirements.notorch.txt && \
+    ${PYTHON} -m pip install --no-cache-dir --target /usr/local/lib/${PYTHON}/site-packages PyYAML && \
     rm /tmp/requirements.txt /tmp/requirements.notorch.txt && \
     rm -rf /root/.cache/pip
 
 # Python env
-ENV PYTHONPATH="/usr/local/lib/python3.12/site-packages:/usr/lib/python3.12/site-packages"
-ENV PYTHON=python3.12
+ENV PYTHONPATH="/usr/local/lib/${PYTHON}/site-packages:/usr/lib/${PYTHON}/site-packages"
 ENV PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
 ENV HF_HOME="/tmp/.cache"
 
diff --git a/Dockerfile.sidecar b/Dockerfile.sidecar
index 754b5346d0..164e5e6249 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.sidecar
+++ b/Dockerfile.sidecar
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ RUN go build -a -o bin/pd-sidecar \
        -ldflags="-X github.com/llm-d/llm-d-inference-scheduler/pkg/sidecar/version.CommitSHA=${COMMIT_SHA} -X github.com/llm-d/llm-d-inference-scheduler/pkg/sidecar/version.BuildRef=${BUILD_REF}" \
        cmd/cmd.go
 
-FROM registry.access.redhat.com/ubi9/ubi-micro:latest
+FROM registry.access.redhat.com/ubi9/ubi-micro:9.7
 WORKDIR /
 COPY --from=builder /workspace/bin/pd-sidecar /app/pd-sidecar
 USER 65532:65532
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 39b857bff9..7083fc071f 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -232,6 +232,7 @@ image-build-%: check-container-tool ## Build Docker image ## Build Docker image
 		--platform linux/$(TARGETARCH) \
  		--build-arg TARGETOS=linux \
 		--build-arg TARGETARCH=$(TARGETARCH) \
+		--build-arg PYTHON_VERSION=$(PYTHON_VERSION) \
 		--build-arg COMMIT_SHA=${GIT_COMMIT_SHA} \
 		--build-arg BUILD_REF=${BUILD_REF} \
  		-t $($*_IMAGE) -f Dockerfile.$* .