diff --git a/.buildkite/hardware_tests/cpu.yaml b/.buildkite/hardware_tests/cpu.yaml
index d54688b574..a29b44ed3c 100644
--- a/.buildkite/hardware_tests/cpu.yaml
+++ b/.buildkite/hardware_tests/cpu.yaml
@@ -232,3 +232,57 @@ steps:
     "$$BUILDKITE_PARALLEL_JOB"
     "$REGISTRY/$REPO:$BUILDKITE_COMMIT-arm64-cpu"
   parallelism: 3
+
+- label: ":docker: Build Zen CPU image"
+  key: zen-cpu-image-build
+  # Reuse the shared `<repo>:<commit>-cpu` image that image-build-cpu publishes
+  # to public ECR, so Dockerfile.zen just layers on top instead of recompiling
+  # vLLM from source. If the pull fails, the build script still falls back to
+  # building the CPU base from source.
+  depends_on:
+    - image-build-cpu
+  soft_fail: true
+  agents:
+    queue: amd-cpu
+  source_file_dependencies:
+    - .buildkite/hardware_tests/cpu.yaml
+    - .buildkite/image_build/image_build_zen_cpu.sh
+    - docker/Dockerfile.zen
+    - docker/Dockerfile.cpu
+    - requirements/cpu.txt
+    - requirements/build/cpu.txt
+    - requirements/test/cpu.txt
+    - cmake/cpu_extension.cmake
+    - vllm/model_executor/layers/utils.py
+    - vllm/model_executor/kernels/linear/zentorch_utils.py
+    - vllm/model_executor/kernels/linear/scaled_mm/zentorch.py
+    - vllm/model_executor/kernels/linear/mixed_precision/zentorch.py
+    - vllm/platforms/cpu.py
+    - vllm/platforms/zen_cpu.py
+    - vllm/platforms/__init__.py
+    - tests/model_executor/test_cpu_unquantized_gemm_dispatch.py
+    - tests/test_zen_cpu_platform_detection.py
+    - tests/kernels/moe/test_zen_cpu_fused_moe.py
+    - tests/kernels/moe/test_zen_cpu_int8_moe.py
+    - vllm/v1/attention/backends/zentorch_sdpa.py
+    - tests/test_zentorch_version_pin.py
+    - vllm/v1/attention/backends/mla/prefill/zen_cpu_sdpa.py
+    - vllm/model_executor/layers/fused_moe/experts/zentorch_moe.py
+    - tests/kernels/quantization/test_zen_da8w4.py
+  commands:
+    - .buildkite/image_build/image_build_zen_cpu.sh "$REGISTRY" "$REPO" "$BUILDKITE_COMMIT"
+  env:
+    DOCKER_BUILDKIT: "1"
+    # Install zentorch directly (if-branch in Dockerfile.zen) instead of
+    # `uv pip install "vllm[zen]"`, which forces uv to re-resolve vLLM's full
+    # dependency closure and chokes on its transitive triton-cpu URL dependency.
+    # Keep this pin in sync with the `zen` extra in setup.py.
+    ZENTORCH_VERSION: "2.13.0.1"
+  retry:
+    automatic:
+      - exit_status: 1  # Transient Docker/BuildKit failure
+        limit: 1
+      - exit_status: -1  # Agent was lost
+        limit: 2
+      - exit_status: -10  # Agent was lost
+        limit: 2
diff --git a/.buildkite/image_build/image_build_zen_cpu.sh b/.buildkite/image_build/image_build_zen_cpu.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..3e42e38a8d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.buildkite/image_build/image_build_zen_cpu.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright contributors to the vLLM project
+#
+# Build the AMD Zen CPU image (vLLM + zentorch) by layering docker/Dockerfile.zen
+# on top of a CPU base image that already has vLLM installed.
+#
+# To avoid recompiling vLLM from source, prefer reusing the shared CPU image that
+# the image-build-cpu step already builds and publishes for this commit
+# (`<repo>:<commit>-cpu`). It lives in public ECR, which allows anonymous pulls,
+# so no registry credentials are required. If the pull fails (e.g. the image
+# isn't published yet), fall back to building the base from docker/Dockerfile.cpu.
+#
+# The zen image is not pushed to a registry.
+#
+# See docker/Dockerfile.zen for the build workflow this mirrors.
+set -euo pipefail
+
+if [[ $# -lt 3 ]]; then
+  echo "Usage: $0 <registry> <repo> <commit>"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+REGISTRY=$1
+REPO=$2
+BUILDKITE_COMMIT=$3
+
+image_repo() {
+  if [[ -n "${REGISTRY}" ]]; then
+    printf '%s/%s' "${REGISTRY}" "${REPO}"
+  else
+    printf '%s' "${REPO}"
+  fi
+}
+
+IMAGE_REPO="$(image_repo)"
+
+# The shared CPU image published by image-build-cpu (public ECR, anonymous pull).
+SHARED_CPU_IMAGE=""
+if [[ -n "${REGISTRY}" ]]; then
+  SHARED_CPU_IMAGE="$REGISTRY/$REPO:$BUILDKITE_COMMIT-cpu"
+fi
+FALLBACK_BASE_IMAGE="zen-cpu-base:$BUILDKITE_COMMIT"
+IMAGE="$IMAGE_REPO:$BUILDKITE_COMMIT-zen-cpu"
+
+# ZENTORCH_VERSION is optional; when unset the Dockerfile falls back to
+# installing zentorch via `vllm[zen]`.
+ZENTORCH_VERSION=${ZENTORCH_VERSION:-}
+
+# Step 1: obtain the CPU base image that Dockerfile.zen layers on. Prefer pulling
+# the published `-cpu` image; fall back to building it from source if unavailable.
+if [[ -n "${SHARED_CPU_IMAGE}" ]] && docker pull "$SHARED_CPU_IMAGE"; then
+  echo "--- :docker: Using published CPU image as base: $SHARED_CPU_IMAGE"
+  BASE_IMAGE="$SHARED_CPU_IMAGE"
+else
+  echo "--- :docker: Published CPU image unavailable; building base from source"
+  docker build --file docker/Dockerfile.cpu \
+    --platform linux/amd64 \
+    --build-arg buildkite_commit="$BUILDKITE_COMMIT" \
+    --build-arg VLLM_CPU_X86=true \
+    --tag "$FALLBACK_BASE_IMAGE" \
+    --target vllm-openai \
+    --progress plain .
+  BASE_IMAGE="$FALLBACK_BASE_IMAGE"
+fi
+
+# Step 2: build the zen test image on top of the CPU base.
+echo "--- :docker: Building Zen test image"
+docker build --file docker/Dockerfile.zen \
+  --platform linux/amd64 \
+  --build-arg BASE_IMAGE="$BASE_IMAGE" \
+  ${ZENTORCH_VERSION:+--build-arg ZENTORCH_VERSION="$ZENTORCH_VERSION"} \
+  --tag "$IMAGE" \
+  --target vllm-zen-test \
+  --progress plain .