diff --git a/.github/workflows/cicd-main.yml b/.github/workflows/cicd-main.yml
index d78a311e7ef0..bb31ac1d2495 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/cicd-main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/cicd-main.yml
@@ -4808,7 +4808,7 @@ jobs:
       SCRIPT: |
         python tests/collections/llm/test_hf_import.py --hf_model /home/TestData/nlp/megatron_llama/llama-ci-hf --output_path /tmp/nemo2_ckpt
 
-        /opt/venv/bin/python tests/export/nemo_export.py \
+         source /opt/venv/bin/activate && tests/export/nemo_export.py \
           --min_tps 1 \
           --max_tps 1 \
           --use_vllm True \
diff --git a/Dockerfile.ci b/Dockerfile.ci
index 6771893d033b..4247f1729842 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.ci
+++ b/Dockerfile.ci
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@ EOF
 # Copy over NeMo code
 COPY ./ ./
 RUN <<"EOF" bash -ex
+pip install --no-cache-dir --no-build-isolation ".[all]"
 
 # Install vLLM in virtualenv
 RUN pip install virtualenv && \
@@ -100,8 +101,6 @@ RUN pip install virtualenv && \
         -r /workspace/requirements/requirements_vllm.txt \
         -r /workspace/requirements/requirements_infer.txt
 
-pip install --no-cache-dir --no-build-isolation ".[all]"
-
 # set permission
 chmod 777 -R /workspace
 EOF