diff --git a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.ray-worker-strixhalo b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.ray-worker-strixhalo
index 01df3f1..97e876e 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.ray-worker-strixhalo
+++ b/dockerfiles/Dockerfile.ray-worker-strixhalo
@@ -118,7 +118,9 @@ RUN echo "import strixhalo_vram_fix" > \
 # Pre-create aiter JIT build cache directory.
 # The vLLM ROCm aiter package compiles kernels on first import and needs
 # this directory writable by the ray user (uid 1000).
-RUN mkdir -p /home/ray/.aiter
+USER root
+RUN mkdir -p /home/ray/.aiter && chown 1000:100 /home/ray/.aiter
+USER ray
 
 # Copy entrypoint script (ray-serve-apps is installed from PyPI at runtime)
 COPY --chown=1000:100 --chmod=755 dockerfiles/ray-entrypoint.sh /app/ray-entrypoint.sh