diff --git a/backends/arm/test/models/test_nss.py b/backends/arm/test/models/test_nss.py
index e5e381cfe66..3dbfaf7f874 100644
--- a/backends/arm/test/models/test_nss.py
+++ b/backends/arm/test/models/test_nss.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 
 import pytest
 import torch
-
 from executorch.backends.arm.test import common
 from executorch.backends.arm.test.tester.test_pipeline import (
     EthosU55PipelineINT,
@@ -16,9 +15,11 @@
     TosaPipelineINT,
     VgfPipeline,
 )
-
 from huggingface_hub import hf_hub_download
 
+# Skip entire module if ng_model_gym is not installed (requires pydantic)
+pytest.importorskip("ng_model_gym")
+
 from ng_model_gym.usecases.nss.model.model_blocks import (  # type: ignore[import-not-found,import-untyped]
     AutoEncoderV1,
 )