diff --git a/tesseract_core/sdk/engine.py b/tesseract_core/sdk/engine.py
index 1d76376a..b9b59825 100644
--- a/tesseract_core/sdk/engine.py
+++ b/tesseract_core/sdk/engine.py
@@ -293,12 +293,12 @@ def build_image(
         remote_dependencies = []
         local_dependencies = []
 
+    local_requirements_path = build_dir / "local_requirements"
+    Path.mkdir(local_requirements_path)
     if local_dependencies:
-        local_requirements_path = build_dir / "local_requirements"
-        Path.mkdir(local_requirements_path)
         for dependency in local_dependencies:
             src = Path(src_dir) / dependency
-            dest = build_dir / "local_requirements" / src.name
+            dest = local_requirements_path / src.name
             if src.is_file():
                 copy(src, dest)
             else:
diff --git a/tesseract_core/sdk/templates/Dockerfile.base b/tesseract_core/sdk/templates/Dockerfile.base
index a4880347..bfa4414a 100644
--- a/tesseract_core/sdk/templates/Dockerfile.base
+++ b/tesseract_core/sdk/templates/Dockerfile.base
@@ -57,8 +57,6 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
 RUN groupadd -g 1000 tesseractor && \
     useradd -u 1000 -g 1000 --create-home -s /bin/bash tesseractor
 WORKDIR /tesseract
-RUN chown tesseractor:tesseractor /tesseract
-USER tesseractor
 
 # Set environment variables
 ENV TESSERACT_NAME="{{ config.name }}" \
@@ -70,6 +68,9 @@ ENV TESSERACT_NAME="{{ config.name }}" \
 COPY --from=build_stage /python-env /python-env
 COPY "{{ tesseract_source_directory }}/tesseract_api.py" ${TESSERACT_API_PATH}
 
+RUN chown -R tesseractor:tesseractor /tesseract
+USER tesseractor
+
 ENV PATH="/python-env/bin:$PATH"
 
 {% if config.build_config.package_data %}