diff --git a/.github/workflows/deploy-backend.yml b/.github/workflows/deploy-backend.yml
index 579b549..cc36e72 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/deploy-backend.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/deploy-backend.yml
@@ -20,9 +20,15 @@ jobs:
       - name: Checkout code
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
-      - name: Create deployment package
+      - name: Set up Python 3.12
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: "3.12"
+
+      - name: Install dependencies and create package
         run: |
           cd backend
+          pip install -r requirements.txt --target=".python_packages/lib/site-packages"
           zip -r ../deploy.zip . -x ".venv/*" ".env" "__pycache__/*" "*.pyc" ".git/*" "tests/*"
 
       - name: Login to Azure
@@ -32,11 +38,15 @@ jobs:
           tenant-id: ${{ secrets.AZUREAPPSERVICE_TENANTID_62D66D4E65AC4A6C872064AD668AC691 }}
           subscription-id: ${{ secrets.AZUREAPPSERVICE_SUBSCRIPTIONID_5D7B0564A55F4209A91149F2642D3F69 }}
 
-      - name: Deploy to Azure Web App (Oryx build)
+      - name: Configure startup command
         run: |
-          az webapp deploy \
+          az webapp config set \
             --name soc-backend \
             --resource-group Operation \
-            --src-path deploy.zip \
-            --type zip \
-            --async false
+            --startup-file startup.sh
+
+      - name: Deploy to Azure Web App
+        uses: azure/webapps-deploy@v3
+        with:
+          app-name: soc-backend
+          package: deploy.zip
diff --git a/backend/startup.sh b/backend/startup.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0bb9786
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/startup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Set PYTHONPATH to include bundled packages
+export PYTHONPATH="/home/site/wwwroot/.python_packages/lib/site-packages:/home/site/wwwroot/antenv/lib/python3.12/site-packages:$PYTHONPATH"
+
+# Start gunicorn with uvicorn workers
+gunicorn -w 2 -k uvicorn.workers.UvicornWorker --bind 0.0.0.0:8000 --timeout 120 app.main:app