diff --git a/backends/nxp/runtime/NeutronBackend.cpp b/backends/nxp/runtime/NeutronBackend.cpp
index 6eb7941949f..4c75f76712a 100644
--- a/backends/nxp/runtime/NeutronBackend.cpp
+++ b/backends/nxp/runtime/NeutronBackend.cpp
@@ -290,6 +290,10 @@ class NeutronBackend final : public PyTorchBackendInterface {
 
     auto* cfg = allocator->allocateInstance<NeutronExecutorchConfig>();
 
+    // allocateInstance returns raw, uninitialized memory (no constructor runs),
+    // so set the driver-config timeout explicitly.
+    cfg->mcfg.timeoutSeconds = 60;
+
     // The following data is read from the "processed" data blob.
     //    cfg->numInputs
     //    cfg->numoutputs
@@ -673,4 +677,4 @@ static auto registered = register_backend(backend_id);
 } // namespace
 } // namespace neutron
 } // namespace executor
-} // namespace torch
\ No newline at end of file
+} // namespace torch