diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 93824e625a..267ce71e47 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Added gradient clipping to StaticCapture utilities.
 - Bistride Multiscale MeshGraphNet example.
 - FIGConvUNet model and example.
+- Ability to pass additional kwargs to torch.distributed from
+  DistributedManager.initialize
 - The Transolver model.
 - The XAeroNet model.
 - Incoporated CorrDiff-GEFS-HRRR model into CorrDiff, with lead-time aware SongUNet and
diff --git a/modulus/distributed/manager.py b/modulus/distributed/manager.py
index 61bc2687e9..582b34c9cc 100644
--- a/modulus/distributed/manager.py
+++ b/modulus/distributed/manager.py
@@ -243,7 +243,7 @@ def get_available_backend():
             return "gloo"
 
     @staticmethod
-    def initialize_env():
+    def initialize_env(**kwargs):
         """Setup method using generic initialization"""
         rank = int(os.environ.get("RANK"))
         world_size = int(os.environ.get("WORLD_SIZE"))
@@ -268,10 +268,11 @@ def initialize_env():
             addr=addr,
             port=port,
             backend=DistributedManager.get_available_backend(),
+            **kwargs,
         )
 
     @staticmethod
-    def initialize_open_mpi(addr, port):
+    def initialize_open_mpi(addr, port, **kwargs):
         """Setup method using OpenMPI initialization"""
         rank = int(os.environ.get("OMPI_COMM_WORLD_RANK"))
         world_size = int(os.environ.get("OMPI_COMM_WORLD_SIZE"))
@@ -285,10 +286,11 @@ def initialize_open_mpi(addr, port):
             port=port,
             backend=DistributedManager.get_available_backend(),
             method="openmpi",
+            **kwargs,
         )
 
     @staticmethod
-    def initialize_slurm(port):
+    def initialize_slurm(port, **kwargs):
         """Setup method using SLURM initialization"""
         rank = int(os.environ.get("SLURM_PROCID"))
         world_size = int(os.environ.get("SLURM_NPROCS"))
@@ -303,10 +305,11 @@ def initialize_slurm(port):
             port=port,
             backend=DistributedManager.get_available_backend(),
             method="slurm",
+            **kwargs,
         )
 
     @staticmethod
-    def initialize():
+    def initialize(**kwargs):
         """
         Initialize distributed manager
 
@@ -324,6 +327,9 @@ def initialize():
         listed above. Initialization method can also be explicitly controlled using the
         `MODULUS_DISTRIBUTED_INITIALIZATION_METHOD` environment variable and setting it
         to one of the options above.
+
+        kwargs are passed down to torch.distributed.init_process_group directly. This can be used
+        to set parameters like `timeout=timedelta(minutes=60)`
         """
         if DistributedManager.is_initialized():
             warn("Distributed manager is already intialized")
@@ -336,23 +342,23 @@ def initialize():
         initialization_method = os.getenv("MODULUS_DISTRIBUTED_INITIALIZATION_METHOD")
         if initialization_method is None:
             try:
-                DistributedManager.initialize_env()
+                DistributedManager.initialize_env(**kwargs)
             except TypeError:
                 if "SLURM_PROCID" in os.environ:
-                    DistributedManager.initialize_slurm(port)
+                    DistributedManager.initialize_slurm(port, **kwargs)
                 elif "OMPI_COMM_WORLD_RANK" in os.environ:
-                    DistributedManager.initialize_open_mpi(addr, port)
+                    DistributedManager.initialize_open_mpi(addr, port, **kwargs)
                 else:
                     warn(
                         "Could not initialize using ENV, SLURM or OPENMPI methods. Assuming this is a single process job"
                     )
                     DistributedManager._shared_state["_is_initialized"] = True
         elif initialization_method == "ENV":
-            DistributedManager.initialize_env()
+            DistributedManager.initialize_env(**kwargs)
         elif initialization_method == "SLURM":
-            DistributedManager.initialize_slurm(port)
+            DistributedManager.initialize_slurm(port, **kwargs)
         elif initialization_method == "OPENMPI":
-            DistributedManager.initialize_open_mpi(addr, port)
+            DistributedManager.initialize_open_mpi(addr, port, **kwargs)
         else:
             raise RuntimeError(
                 "Unknown initialization method "
@@ -374,6 +380,7 @@ def setup(
         port="12355",
         backend="nccl",
         method="env",
+        **kwargs,
     ):
         """Set up PyTorch distributed process group and update manager attributes"""
         os.environ["MASTER_ADDR"] = addr
@@ -404,6 +411,7 @@ def setup(
                     rank=manager.rank,
                     world_size=manager.world_size,
                     device_id=manager.device,
+                    **kwargs,
                 )
             except TypeError:
                 # device_id only introduced in PyTorch 2.3
@@ -411,6 +419,7 @@ def setup(
                     backend,
                     rank=manager.rank,
                     world_size=manager.world_size,
+                    **kwargs,
                 )
 
         if torch.cuda.is_available():
diff --git a/test/distributed/test_manager.py b/test/distributed/test_manager.py
index 97cfd652f8..3be15c22d1 100644
--- a/test/distributed/test_manager.py
+++ b/test/distributed/test_manager.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 # limitations under the License.
 
 import os
+from datetime import timedelta
 
 import pytest
 import torch
@@ -55,6 +56,29 @@ def test_manager():
     del os.environ["WORLD_SIZE"]
 
 
+def test_manager_timeout():
+    os.environ["MASTER_ADDR"] = "localhost"
+    os.environ["MASTER_PORT"] = "12345"
+    os.environ["RANK"] = "0"
+    os.environ["WORLD_SIZE"] = "1"
+    DistributedManager.initialize(timeout=timedelta(minutes=60))
+    print(DistributedManager())
+
+    manager = DistributedManager()
+
+    assert manager.is_initialized()
+    assert (
+        manager.distributed == torch.distributed.is_available()
+    ), "Manager should be in serial mode"
+    assert manager.rank == 0
+    assert manager.world_size == 1
+    assert manager.local_rank == 0
+
+    DistributedManager.cleanup()
+    del os.environ["RANK"]
+    del os.environ["WORLD_SIZE"]
+
+
 def test_manager_slurm():
     # Test distributed manager with Slurm variables
     os.environ["MASTER_ADDR"] = "localhost"