diff --git a/ludwig/hyperopt/execution.py b/ludwig/hyperopt/execution.py
index bff2e457c53..e477520e694 100644
--- a/ludwig/hyperopt/execution.py
+++ b/ludwig/hyperopt/execution.py
@@ -14,7 +14,15 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 from typing import Any, Callable, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple, Union
 
+import ray
 from packaging import version
+from ray import tune
+from ray.tune import register_trainable, Stopper
+from ray.tune.schedulers.resource_changing_scheduler import DistributeResources, ResourceChangingScheduler
+from ray.tune.suggest import BasicVariantGenerator, ConcurrencyLimiter
+from ray.tune.utils import wait_for_gpu
+from ray.tune.utils.placement_groups import PlacementGroupFactory
+from ray.util.queue import Queue as RayQueue
 
 from ludwig.api import LudwigModel
 from ludwig.backend import initialize_backend, RAY
@@ -30,32 +38,16 @@
 from ludwig.utils.fs_utils import has_remote_protocol
 from ludwig.utils.misc_utils import get_from_registry
 
-logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
-
-try:
-    import ray
-    from ray import tune
-    from ray.tune import register_trainable, Stopper
-    from ray.tune.schedulers.resource_changing_scheduler import DistributeResources, ResourceChangingScheduler
-    from ray.tune.suggest import BasicVariantGenerator, ConcurrencyLimiter
-
-    _ray_114 = version.parse(ray.__version__) >= version.parse("1.14")
-    if _ray_114:
-        from ray.tune.search import SEARCH_ALG_IMPORT
-        from ray.tune.syncer import get_node_to_storage_syncer, SyncConfig
-    else:
-        from ray.tune.syncer import get_cloud_sync_client
-        from ray.tune.suggest import SEARCH_ALG_IMPORT
+_ray_114 = version.parse(ray.__version__) >= version.parse("1.14")
+if _ray_114:
+    from ray.tune.search import SEARCH_ALG_IMPORT
+    from ray.tune.syncer import get_node_to_storage_syncer, SyncConfig
+else:
+    from ray.tune.suggest import SEARCH_ALG_IMPORT
+    from ray.tune.syncer import get_cloud_sync_client
 
-    from ray.tune.utils import wait_for_gpu
-    from ray.tune.utils.placement_groups import PlacementGroupFactory
-    from ray.util.queue import Queue as RayQueue
 
-except ImportError as e:
-    logger.warning(f"ImportError (execution.py) failed to import ray with error: \n\t{e}")
-    ray = None
-    Stopper = object
-    get_horovod_kwargs = None
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
 try:
diff --git a/ludwig/hyperopt/run.py b/ludwig/hyperopt/run.py
index 8ea4ef7c99c..8740f4a365f 100644
--- a/ludwig/hyperopt/run.py
+++ b/ludwig/hyperopt/run.py
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 from ludwig.constants import COMBINED, EXECUTOR, HYPEROPT, LOSS, MINIMIZE, TEST, TRAINING, TYPE, VALIDATION
 from ludwig.data.split import get_splitter
 from ludwig.features.feature_registries import output_type_registry
-from ludwig.hyperopt.execution import executor_registry, get_build_hyperopt_executor, RayTuneExecutor
 from ludwig.hyperopt.results import HyperoptResults
 from ludwig.hyperopt.utils import print_hyperopt_results, save_hyperopt_stats, should_tune_preprocessing
 from ludwig.utils.defaults import default_random_seed, merge_with_defaults
@@ -162,6 +161,8 @@ def hyperopt(
     :return: (List[dict]) List of results for each trial, ordered by
         descending performance on the target metric.
     """
+    from ludwig.hyperopt.execution import get_build_hyperopt_executor, RayTuneExecutor
+
     # check if config is a path or a dict
     if isinstance(config, str):  # assume path
         with open_file(config, "r") as def_file:
@@ -359,6 +360,8 @@ def hyperopt(
 
 
 def update_hyperopt_params_with_defaults(hyperopt_params):
+    from ludwig.hyperopt.execution import executor_registry
+
     set_default_value(hyperopt_params, EXECUTOR, {})
     set_default_value(hyperopt_params, "split", VALIDATION)
     set_default_value(hyperopt_params, "output_feature", COMBINED)
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests/test_hyperopt.py b/tests/integration_tests/test_hyperopt.py
index b5f3bdc574a..eeb1bfc0910 100644
--- a/tests/integration_tests/test_hyperopt.py
+++ b/tests/integration_tests/test_hyperopt.py
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@
 import torch
 
 from ludwig.constants import ACCURACY, RAY, TRAINER
-from ludwig.hyperopt.execution import get_build_hyperopt_executor
 from ludwig.hyperopt.results import HyperoptResults, RayTuneResults
 from ludwig.hyperopt.run import hyperopt, update_hyperopt_params_with_defaults
 from ludwig.utils.defaults import merge_with_defaults
@@ -29,6 +28,8 @@
 
 try:
     import ray
+
+    from ludwig.hyperopt.execution import get_build_hyperopt_executor
 except ImportError:
     ray = None
 
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests/test_hyperopt_ray.py b/tests/integration_tests/test_hyperopt_ray.py
index 4bec78e0185..52ea05c12fa 100644
--- a/tests/integration_tests/test_hyperopt_ray.py
+++ b/tests/integration_tests/test_hyperopt_ray.py
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@
 
 from ludwig.constants import ACCURACY, TRAINER
 from ludwig.contribs import MlflowCallback
-from ludwig.hyperopt.execution import get_build_hyperopt_executor
 from ludwig.hyperopt.run import hyperopt, update_hyperopt_params_with_defaults
 from ludwig.utils.defaults import merge_with_defaults
 from tests.integration_tests.utils import category_feature, generate_data, text_feature
@@ -31,6 +30,7 @@
 try:
     import ray
 
+    from ludwig.hyperopt.execution import get_build_hyperopt_executor
     from ludwig.hyperopt.results import RayTuneResults
 except ImportError:
     ray = None
diff --git a/tests/ludwig/utils/test_hyperopt_ray_utils.py b/tests/ludwig/utils/test_hyperopt_ray_utils.py
index cb4eab848c7..684e29c1df0 100644
--- a/tests/ludwig/utils/test_hyperopt_ray_utils.py
+++ b/tests/ludwig/utils/test_hyperopt_ray_utils.py
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
 
 try:
     from ray import tune
+
+    from ludwig.hyperopt.execution import get_build_hyperopt_executor
 except ImportError:
     RAY_AVAILABLE = False
 else:
@@ -23,7 +25,6 @@
 
 # from ludwig.hyperopt.sampling import RayTuneSampler   TDOO: remove
 from ludwig.constants import RAY, TYPE
-from ludwig.hyperopt.execution import get_build_hyperopt_executor
 
 HYPEROPT_PARAMS = {
     "test_1": {