diff --git a/qa/L0_pytorch_unittest/test.sh b/qa/L0_pytorch_unittest/test.sh
index 870e869795..fe36b33384 100644
--- a/qa/L0_pytorch_unittest/test.sh
+++ b/qa/L0_pytorch_unittest/test.sh
@@ -23,6 +23,6 @@ pytest -v -s $TE_PATH/tests/pytorch/test_multi_tensor.py || FAIL=1
 pytest -v -s $TE_PATH/tests/pytorch/test_fusible_ops.py || FAIL=1
 pytest -v -s $TE_PATH/tests/pytorch/test_permutation.py || FAIL=1
 pytest -v -s $TE_PATH/tests/pytorch/test_parallel_cross_entropy.py || FAIL=1
-NVTE_TORCH_COMPILE=0 NVTE_DEBUG=1 NVTE_DEBUG_LEVEL=1 pytest -o log_cli=true --log-cli-level=INFO -v -s $TE_PATH/tests/pytorch/fused_attn/test_fused_attn.py || FAIL=1
+NVTE_DEBUG=1 NVTE_DEBUG_LEVEL=1 pytest -o log_cli=true --log-cli-level=INFO -v -s $TE_PATH/tests/pytorch/fused_attn/test_fused_attn.py || FAIL=1
 
 exit $FAIL
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 856c518f79..996027bd9e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ def setup_requirements() -> Tuple[List[str], List[str], List[str]]:
     # Framework-specific requirements
     if not bool(int(os.getenv("NVTE_RELEASE_BUILD", "0"))):
         if "pytorch" in frameworks:
-            install_reqs.extend(["torch"])
+            install_reqs.extend(["torch>=2.1"])
             # Blackwell is not supported as of Triton 3.2.0, need custom internal build
             # install_reqs.append("triton")
             test_reqs.extend(["numpy", "torchvision", "prettytable"])
diff --git a/tests/pytorch/distributed/test_torch_fsdp2.py b/tests/pytorch/distributed/test_torch_fsdp2.py
index bad09bf32a..f5c186a3bc 100644
--- a/tests/pytorch/distributed/test_torch_fsdp2.py
+++ b/tests/pytorch/distributed/test_torch_fsdp2.py
@@ -6,8 +6,8 @@
 import pytest
 import subprocess
 from pathlib import Path
+from transformer_engine.pytorch import torch_version
 from transformer_engine.pytorch.fp8 import FP8GlobalStateManager
-from transformer_engine.pytorch.utils import torch_version
 
 import torch
 
diff --git a/transformer_engine/pytorch/__init__.py b/transformer_engine/pytorch/__init__.py
index 92250cd322..966115c29e 100644
--- a/transformer_engine/pytorch/__init__.py
+++ b/transformer_engine/pytorch/__init__.py
@@ -7,16 +7,25 @@
 # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position,wrong-import-order
 
 import logging
+import functools
+import sys
 import importlib
 import importlib.util
-import sys
-import torch
 from importlib.metadata import version
+from packaging.version import Version as PkgVersion
+
+import torch
 
 from transformer_engine.common import get_te_path, is_package_installed
 from transformer_engine.common import _get_sys_extension
 
 
+@functools.lru_cache(maxsize=None)
+def torch_version() -> tuple[int, ...]:
+    """Get PyTorch version"""
+    return PkgVersion(str(torch.__version__)).release
+
+
 def _load_library():
     """Load shared library with Transformer Engine C extensions"""
     module_name = "transformer_engine_torch"
@@ -60,6 +69,9 @@ def _load_library():
     spec.loader.exec_module(solib)
 
 
+assert torch_version() >= (2, 1), f"Minimum torch version 2.1 required. Found {torch_version()}."
+
+
 _load_library()
 from transformer_engine.pytorch.module import LayerNormLinear
 from transformer_engine.pytorch.module import Linear
diff --git a/transformer_engine/pytorch/attention.py b/transformer_engine/pytorch/attention.py
index 7666d3f32b..cc92c1377d 100644
--- a/transformer_engine/pytorch/attention.py
+++ b/transformer_engine/pytorch/attention.py
@@ -1385,7 +1385,7 @@ def _get_full_cu_seqlens(
     return _cu_seqlens_cache[(batch_size, max_seqlen)]
 
 
-@torch.compile
+@jit_fuser
 def pack_tensor(
     indices: torch.Tensor,
     tensor: torch.Tensor,
@@ -1409,7 +1409,7 @@ def pack_tensor(
     return packed
 
 
-@torch.compile
+@jit_fuser
 def pack_2_tensors(
     indices: torch.Tensor,
     t1: torch.Tensor,
@@ -1423,7 +1423,7 @@ def pack_2_tensors(
     return t1_packed, t2_packed
 
 
-@torch.compile
+@jit_fuser
 def pack_3_tensors(
     indices: torch.Tensor,
     t1: torch.Tensor,
@@ -1439,7 +1439,7 @@ def pack_3_tensors(
     return t1_packed, t2_packed, t3_packed
 
 
-@torch.compile
+@jit_fuser
 def unpack_tensor(
     indices: torch.Tensor,
     dim0: int,
@@ -1462,7 +1462,7 @@ def unpack_tensor(
     return unpacked
 
 
-@torch.compile
+@jit_fuser
 def unpack_2_tensors(
     indices: torch.Tensor,
     dim0: int,
@@ -1477,7 +1477,7 @@ def unpack_2_tensors(
     return t1_unpacked, t2_unpacked
 
 
-@torch.compile
+@jit_fuser
 def unpack_3_tensors(
     indices: torch.Tensor,
     dim0: int,
@@ -1645,7 +1645,7 @@ def get_cu_seqlens_on_cp_rank(
     return cu_seqlens_on_cp_rank
 
 
-@torch.compile
+@jit_fuser
 def get_seq_chunk_ids_for_reordering(cp_size, device, to_contiguous):
     """
     Context parallelism assigns two discontiguous sequence chunks to each GPU for load balancing.
@@ -1665,7 +1665,7 @@ def get_seq_chunk_ids_for_reordering(cp_size, device, to_contiguous):
     return chunk_ids
 
 
-@torch.compile
+@jit_fuser
 def reorder_seq_chunks_for_a2a(x, chunk_ids_for_a2a, seq_dim, cp_size, before_attn):
     """Reorder sequence chunk for A2A communication."""
     if before_attn:
diff --git a/transformer_engine/pytorch/jit.py b/transformer_engine/pytorch/jit.py
index cda3939d6f..aae35ded68 100644
--- a/transformer_engine/pytorch/jit.py
+++ b/transformer_engine/pytorch/jit.py
@@ -10,28 +10,20 @@
 
 # pylint: disable=unnecessary-lambda-assignment
 
-jit_fuser = torch.jit.script
+jit_fuser = lambda func: func
 if torch.__version__ >= "2" and bool(int(os.getenv("NVTE_TORCH_COMPILE", "1"))):
     jit_fuser = torch.compile
 
+
 # See: https://github.com/NVIDIA/TransformerEngine/issues/597
 dropout_fuser = torch.jit.script
 if torch.__version__ >= "2.2" and bool(int(os.getenv("NVTE_TORCH_COMPILE", "1"))):
     dropout_fuser = torch.compile
 
+
 # Decorator to disable Torch Dynamo
 # See: https://github.com/NVIDIA/TransformerEngine/issues/308
-no_torch_dynamo = lambda recursive=True: lambda func: func
-if torch.__version__ >= "2":
-    import torch._dynamo
-
-    if torch.__version__ >= "2.1":
-        no_torch_dynamo = lambda recursive=True: lambda f: torch._dynamo.disable(
-            f, recursive=recursive
-        )
-    else:
-        # no "recursive" option in pyTorch 2.0 - it acts as if recursive was True
-        no_torch_dynamo = lambda recursive=True: torch._dynamo.disable
+no_torch_dynamo = lambda recursive=True: lambda f: torch._dynamo.disable(f, recursive=recursive)
 
 
 def set_jit_fusion_options() -> None:
diff --git a/transformer_engine/pytorch/ops/_common.py b/transformer_engine/pytorch/ops/_common.py
index b4631eb9a7..20e63e0e63 100644
--- a/transformer_engine/pytorch/ops/_common.py
+++ b/transformer_engine/pytorch/ops/_common.py
@@ -10,13 +10,13 @@
 import torch
 
 from transformer_engine_torch import FP8TensorMeta
+from .. import torch_version
 from ..fp8 import FP8GlobalStateManager
 from ..tensor.float8_tensor import Float8Tensor
 from ..utils import (
     canonicalize_device,
     canonicalize_dtype,
     devices_match,
-    torch_version,
 )
 
 
diff --git a/transformer_engine/pytorch/utils.py b/transformer_engine/pytorch/utils.py
index 4678097dc4..1922a7e867 100644
--- a/transformer_engine/pytorch/utils.py
+++ b/transformer_engine/pytorch/utils.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 import math
 import os
 from typing import Any, Callable, List, Optional, Tuple
-from packaging.version import Version as PkgVersion
 
 import torch
 import transformer_engine.pytorch.cpp_extensions as ext
@@ -387,9 +386,3 @@ def nvtx_range_pop(msg: Optional[str] = None) -> None:
 
     # Pop NVTX range
     torch.cuda.nvtx.range_pop()
-
-
-@functools.lru_cache(maxsize=None)
-def torch_version() -> tuple[int, ...]:
-    """Get PyTorch version"""
-    return PkgVersion(str(torch.__version__)).release