diff --git a/pennylane/workflow/construct_batch.py b/pennylane/workflow/construct_batch.py
index b57c4f15dcb..c12a07427ec 100644
--- a/pennylane/workflow/construct_batch.py
+++ b/pennylane/workflow/construct_batch.py
@@ -18,8 +18,6 @@
 from functools import wraps
 from typing import Callable, Literal, Optional, Tuple, Union
 
-import tensorflow as tf
-
 import pennylane as qml
 
 from .qnode import QNode, _get_device_shots, _make_execution_config
@@ -299,6 +297,9 @@ def batch_constructor(*args, **kwargs) -> Tuple[Tuple["qml.tape.QuantumTape", Ca
             shots = kwargs.pop("shots", _get_device_shots(qnode.device))
 
         if isinstance(qnode, qml.qnn.KerasLayer):
+            # pylint: disable=import-outside-toplevel
+            import tensorflow as tf
+
             with tf.GradientTape() as tape:
                 tape.watch(list(qnode.qnode_weights.values()))