diff --git a/src/sonic-config-engine/lazy_re.py b/src/sonic-config-engine/lazy_re.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b51c385c1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/sonic-config-engine/lazy_re.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+# monkey patch re.compile to improve import time of some packages
+
+import re
+
+_orig_re_compile = re.compile
+
+
+def __re_compile(*args, **kwargs):
+    class __LazyReCompile(object):
+        def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
+            self.args = args
+            self.kwargs = kwargs
+            self.pattern_obj = None
+
+        def __getattr__(self, name):
+            if self.pattern_obj is None:
+                self.pattern_obj = _orig_re_compile(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
+            return getattr(self.pattern_obj, name)
+    return __LazyReCompile(*args, **kwargs)
+
+re.compile = __re_compile
+
diff --git a/src/sonic-config-engine/redis_bcc.py b/src/sonic-config-engine/redis_bcc.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..5ab59b6a69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/sonic-config-engine/redis_bcc.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+import jinja2
+
+class RedisBytecodeCache(jinja2.BytecodeCache):
+    """ A bytecode cache for jinja2 template that stores bytecode in Redis """
+
+    REDIS_HASH = 'JINJA2_CACHE'
+
+    def __init__(self, client):
+        self._client = client
+        try:
+            self._client.connect(self._client.STATE_DB, retry_on=False)
+        except Exception:
+            self._client = None
+
+    def load_bytecode(self, bucket):
+        if self._client is None:
+            return
+        code = self._client.get(self._client.STATE_DB, self.REDIS_HASH, bucket.key)
+        if code is not None:
+            bucket.bytecode_from_string(code)
+
+    def dump_bytecode(self, bucket):
+        if self._client is None:
+            return
+        self._client.set(self._client.STATE_DB, self.REDIS_HASH, bucket.key, bucket.bytecode_to_string())
+
diff --git a/src/sonic-config-engine/setup.py b/src/sonic-config-engine/setup.py
index 7ca810ce6a..c75a5b5a03 100755
--- a/src/sonic-config-engine/setup.py
+++ b/src/sonic-config-engine/setup.py
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ setup(name='sonic-config-engine',
       author='Taoyu Li',
       author_email='taoyl@microsoft.com',
       url='https://github.com/Azure/sonic-buildimage',
-      py_modules=['portconfig', 'minigraph', 'openconfig_acl', 'sonic_device_util', 'config_samples'],
+      py_modules=['portconfig', 'minigraph', 'openconfig_acl', 'sonic_device_util', 'config_samples', 'redis_bcc', 'lazy_re'],
       scripts=['sonic-cfggen'],
       install_requires=['lxml', 'jinja2>=2.10', 'netaddr', 'ipaddr', 'pyyaml', 'pyangbind==0.6.0'],
       test_suite='setup.get_test_suite',
diff --git a/src/sonic-config-engine/sonic-cfggen b/src/sonic-config-engine/sonic-cfggen
index ca550b49e4..7cff6c9fb3 100755
--- a/src/sonic-config-engine/sonic-cfggen
+++ b/src/sonic-config-engine/sonic-cfggen
@@ -16,6 +16,16 @@ See usage string for detail description for arguments.
 """
 
 from __future__ import print_function
+
+# monkey patch re.compile to do lazy regular expression compilation.
+# This is done to improve import time of jinja2, yaml, natsort modules, because they
+# do many regexp compilation at import time, so it will speed up sonic-cfggen invocations
+# that do not require template generation or yaml loading. sonic-cfggen is used in so many places
+# during system boot up that importing jinja2, yaml, natsort every time
+# without lazy regular expression compilation affect boot up time.
+# FIXME: remove this once sonic-cfggen and templates dependencies are replaced with a faster approach
+import lazy_re
+
 import sys
 import os.path
 import argparse
@@ -33,7 +43,8 @@ from sonic_device_util import get_platform_info
 from sonic_device_util import get_system_mac
 from config_samples import generate_sample_config
 from config_samples import get_available_config
-from swsssdk import ConfigDBConnector
+from swsssdk import SonicV2Connector, ConfigDBConnector
+from redis_bcc import RedisBytecodeCache
 from collections import OrderedDict
 from natsort import natsorted
 
@@ -267,7 +278,8 @@ def main():
         paths  = ['/', '/usr/share/sonic/templates', os.path.dirname(template_file)]
         loader = jinja2.FileSystemLoader(paths)
 
-        env = jinja2.Environment(loader=loader, trim_blocks=True)
+        redis_bcc = RedisBytecodeCache(SonicV2Connector(host='127.0.0.1'))
+        env = jinja2.Environment(loader=loader, trim_blocks=True, bytecode_cache=redis_bcc)
         env.filters['sort_by_port_index'] = sort_by_port_index
         env.filters['ipv4'] = is_ipv4
         env.filters['ipv6'] = is_ipv6