diff --git a/lib/restate-constructs/register-service-handler/index.mts b/lib/restate-constructs/register-service-handler/index.mts
index 999ece5..8362cef 100644
--- a/lib/restate-constructs/register-service-handler/index.mts
+++ b/lib/restate-constructs/register-service-handler/index.mts
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
  */
 
 import type { CloudFormationCustomResourceEvent } from "aws-lambda/trigger/cloudformation-custom-resource";
+import type { Context } from "aws-lambda";
 
 import { GetSecretValueCommand, SecretsManagerClient } from "@aws-sdk/client-secrets-manager";
 
@@ -89,6 +90,12 @@ export interface RegistrationProperties {
    * @see force for allowing both breaking changes and overwrites
    */
   breaking?: "true" | "false";
+
+  /** Override the maximum number of admin health check attempts before giving up. */
+  healthCheckRetryAttempts?: number;
+
+  /** Cap, in seconds, on the per-iteration backoff sleep used during health check retries. */
+  healthCheckMaxBackoffSeconds?: number;
 }
 
 type RegisterDeploymentResponse = {
@@ -96,12 +103,22 @@ type RegisterDeploymentResponse = {
   services: { name: string; revision: number; public: boolean }[];
 };
 
-const MAX_HEALTH_CHECK_ATTEMPTS = 10; // This is intentionally quite long to allow some time for first-run EC2 and Docker boot up
+const DEFAULT_HEALTH_CHECK_ATTEMPTS = 10; // Long enough to absorb first-run EC2/Docker boot up.
+const DEFAULT_HEALTH_CHECK_MAX_BACKOFF_MS = 20_000;
+const HEALTH_CHECK_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS = 5_000;
+// Reserve at the end of the Lambda budget for the registration retries that follow a successful health check, optional
+// pruning, and the CFN response submission. The deadline guard in the health check loop refuses to keep retrying
+// once the remaining time would not cover this reserve plus the next request.
+const POST_HEALTH_CHECK_RESERVE_MS = 60_000;
 const MAX_REGISTRATION_ATTEMPTS = 3;
 
 const DEPLOYMENTS_PATH = "deployments";
 const SERVICES_PATH = "services";
 
+function healthCheckBackoffBaseMs(attempt: number, maxBackoffMs: number): number {
+  return Math.min(2 ** attempt * 1_000, maxBackoffMs);
+}
+
 interface HttpResponse {
   statusCode: number;
   body: string;
@@ -154,12 +171,24 @@ async function httpRequest(
  * Custom Resource event handler for Restate service registration. This handler backs the custom resources created by
  * {@link ServiceDeployer} to facilitate Lambda service handler discovery.
  */
-export const handler = async function (event: CloudFormationCustomResourceEvent) {
+export const handler = async function (event: CloudFormationCustomResourceEvent, context: Context) {
   console.log({ event });
 
   const props = event.ResourceProperties as RegistrationProperties;
   const rejectUnauthorized = props.insecure !== "true";
 
+  const maxHealthCheckAttempts = positiveIntOr(
+    props.healthCheckRetryAttempts,
+    DEFAULT_HEALTH_CHECK_ATTEMPTS,
+    "healthCheckRetryAttempts",
+  );
+  const healthCheckMaxBackoffMs =
+    positiveIntOr(
+      props.healthCheckMaxBackoffSeconds,
+      DEFAULT_HEALTH_CHECK_MAX_BACKOFF_MS / 1_000,
+      "healthCheckMaxBackoffSeconds",
+    ) * 1_000;
+
   if (event.RequestType === "Delete") {
     if (props.removalPolicy !== "destroy") {
       console.log("Removal policy is 'retain'; leaving deployment registered in Restate.");
@@ -221,7 +250,7 @@ export const handler = async function (event: CloudFormationCustomResourceEvent)
       healthResponse = await httpRequest(healthCheckUrl, {
         method: "GET",
         headers: authHeader,
-        timeout: 5_000,
+        timeout: HEALTH_CHECK_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS,
         rejectUnauthorized,
       });
 
@@ -235,13 +264,21 @@ export const handler = async function (event: CloudFormationCustomResourceEvent)
       console.error(`Restate health check failed: "${errorMessage}" (attempt ${attempt})`);
     }
 
-    if (attempt >= MAX_HEALTH_CHECK_ATTEMPTS) {
+    if (attempt >= maxHealthCheckAttempts) {
       console.error(`Admin service health check failing after ${attempt} attempts.`);
       throw new Error(errorMessage ?? `(${healthResponse?.statusCode})`);
     }
     attempt += 1;
 
-    const waitTimeMillis = randomInt(2_000) + 2 ** attempt * 1_000; // 3s -> 6s -> 10s -> 18s -> 34s
+    const waitTimeMillis = randomInt(2_000) + healthCheckBackoffBaseMs(attempt, healthCheckMaxBackoffMs);
+    const requiredMs = waitTimeMillis + HEALTH_CHECK_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS + POST_HEALTH_CHECK_RESERVE_MS;
+    if (context && context.getRemainingTimeInMillis() < requiredMs) {
+      throw new Error(
+        `Health check loop aborted to preserve Lambda budget for CloudFormation response: ` +
+          `${context.getRemainingTimeInMillis()}ms remaining, need ${requiredMs}ms. ` +
+          `Last error: ${errorMessage ?? `(${healthResponse?.statusCode})`}`,
+      );
+    }
     console.log(`Retrying after ${waitTimeMillis} ms...`);
     await sleep(waitTimeMillis);
   }
@@ -392,6 +429,17 @@ async function sleep(millis: number) {
   return new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, millis));
 }
 
+function positiveIntOr(raw: number | string | undefined, fallback: number, propertyName: string): number {
+  if (raw === undefined || raw === null || raw === "") {
+    return fallback;
+  }
+  const parsed = typeof raw === "number" ? raw : Number(raw);
+  if (!Number.isFinite(parsed) || parsed < 1) {
+    throw new Error(`Invalid value for ${propertyName}: expected a positive integer, got ${JSON.stringify(raw)}.`);
+  }
+  return Math.floor(parsed);
+}
+
 async function deleteDeployment(
   adminUrl: string,
   deploymentId: string,
diff --git a/lib/restate-constructs/service-deployer.ts b/lib/restate-constructs/service-deployer.ts
index 6eac279..b8f1a6c 100644
--- a/lib/restate-constructs/service-deployer.ts
+++ b/lib/restate-constructs/service-deployer.ts
@@ -148,6 +148,25 @@ export interface ServiceRegistrationProps {
    * @default false
    */
   breaking?: boolean;
+
+  /**
+   * Maximum number of admin health check attempts before the deployer gives up and reports failure to
+   * CloudFormation. Defaults to a value that, combined with `healthCheckMaxBackoff`, keeps the worst-case
+   * loop comfortably below the deployer Lambda's 5-minute default timeout. Increase only if you also
+   * raise the deployer's Lambda `timeout` to match.
+   *
+   * @default 10
+   */
+  healthCheckRetryAttempts?: number;
+
+  /**
+   * Cap on the per-iteration backoff sleep used during admin health check retries. Without a cap, the
+   * exponential backoff grows fast enough that the deployer Lambda can be killed by the runtime mid-loop,
+   * leaving CloudFormation to wait for its 60-minute step timeout.
+   *
+   * @default Duration.seconds(20)
+   */
+  healthCheckMaxBackoff?: cdk.Duration;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -301,6 +320,13 @@ export class ServiceDeployer extends Construct {
         maxPrunedPerRun: options?.maxPrunedPerRun ?? 10,
         force: (options?.force ?? false).toString() as "true" | "false",
         breaking: (options?.breaking ?? false).toString() as "true" | "false",
+        // Forward retry knobs only when the caller sets them, to avoid CFN property diffs for existing users.
+        ...(options?.healthCheckRetryAttempts !== undefined
+          ? { healthCheckRetryAttempts: options.healthCheckRetryAttempts }
+          : {}),
+        ...(options?.healthCheckMaxBackoff !== undefined
+          ? { healthCheckMaxBackoffSeconds: options.healthCheckMaxBackoff.toSeconds() }
+          : {}),
       } satisfies RegistrationProperties,
     });
 
diff --git a/test/__snapshots__/restate-constructs.test.ts.snap b/test/__snapshots__/restate-constructs.test.ts.snap
index 0e0efd0..abbfb12 100644
--- a/test/__snapshots__/restate-constructs.test.ts.snap
+++ b/test/__snapshots__/restate-constructs.test.ts.snap
@@ -1851,7 +1851,7 @@ exports[`Restate constructs Service Deployer overrides 1`] = `
         - arm64
       Code:
         S3Bucket: cdk-hnb659fds-assets-account-id-region
-        S3Key: 8ed2b7e40aa8b43d18da885b2d5ec8673277d0810b888d6becb080a6f280a64f.zip
+        S3Key: 595464e51d4a001ceaa6194ce91bd75f1475b9359b2b4da2271fe26a9d65260e.zip
       Description: Restate custom registration handler
       Handler: entrypoint.handler
       MemorySize: 128
diff --git a/test/restate-constructs.test.ts b/test/restate-constructs.test.ts
index fa4cf9d..24f4599 100644
--- a/test/restate-constructs.test.ts
+++ b/test/restate-constructs.test.ts
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import * as iam from "aws-cdk-lib/aws-iam";
 import * as lambda from "aws-cdk-lib/aws-lambda";
 import * as route53 from "aws-cdk-lib/aws-route53";
 import * as secrets from "aws-cdk-lib/aws-secretsmanager";
+import { Template } from "aws-cdk-lib/assertions";
 import "jest-cdk-snapshot";
 import {
   FargateRestateDeployment,
@@ -235,6 +236,53 @@ describe("Restate constructs", () => {
     });
   });
 
+  test("Service Deployer health check retry overrides are forwarded to the custom resource", () => {
+    const app = new cdk.App();
+    const stack = new cdk.Stack(app, "ServiceDeployerRetryOverrides", {
+      env: { account: "account-id", region: "region" },
+    });
+
+    const restateEnvironment = RestateEnvironment.fromAttributes({
+      adminUrl: "https://restate.example.com:9070",
+    });
+
+    const handler = mockHandler(stack);
+    const serviceDeployer = new ServiceDeployer(stack, "ServiceDeployer", {
+      code: lambda.Code.fromAsset("dist/register-service-handler"),
+    });
+    serviceDeployer.register(handler.currentVersion, restateEnvironment, {
+      healthCheckRetryAttempts: 7,
+      healthCheckMaxBackoff: cdk.Duration.seconds(15),
+    });
+
+    const properties = Template.fromStack(stack).findResources("Custom::RestateServiceDeployment");
+    const customResource = Object.values(properties)[0]!.Properties as Record<string, unknown>;
+    expect(customResource.healthCheckRetryAttempts).toBe(7);
+    expect(customResource.healthCheckMaxBackoffSeconds).toBe(15);
+  });
+
+  test("Service Deployer omits health check retry properties when not set", () => {
+    const app = new cdk.App();
+    const stack = new cdk.Stack(app, "ServiceDeployerRetryDefaults", {
+      env: { account: "account-id", region: "region" },
+    });
+
+    const restateEnvironment = RestateEnvironment.fromAttributes({
+      adminUrl: "https://restate.example.com:9070",
+    });
+
+    const handler = mockHandler(stack);
+    const serviceDeployer = new ServiceDeployer(stack, "ServiceDeployer", {
+      code: lambda.Code.fromAsset("dist/register-service-handler"),
+    });
+    serviceDeployer.register(handler.currentVersion, restateEnvironment);
+
+    const properties = Template.fromStack(stack).findResources("Custom::RestateServiceDeployment");
+    const customResource = Object.values(properties)[0]!.Properties as Record<string, unknown>;
+    expect("healthCheckRetryAttempts" in customResource).toBe(false);
+    expect("healthCheckMaxBackoffSeconds" in customResource).toBe(false);
+  });
+
   test("[Experimental] Create a self-hosted Restate environment deployed on ECS Fargate", () => {
     const app = new cdk.App();
     const stack = new cdk.Stack(app, "RestateOnFargateStack", {