diff --git a/backend/Dockerfile b/backend/Dockerfile
index 0a44c6c..5c4f1f7 100644
--- a/backend/Dockerfile
+++ b/backend/Dockerfile
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 # =============================================================================
 # Stage 1: Builder - Install dependencies
 # Stage 2: Base - Common runtime for API and Worker
-# Stage 3: API - FastAPI + Gunicorn (with ffmpeg for TTS audio conversion)
-# Stage 4: Worker - Celery worker (with ffmpeg for video processing)
+# Stage 3: API - FastAPI + Gunicorn (no ffmpeg — heavy tasks run on Cloud Run Jobs)
+# Stage 4: Worker - Celery worker, lightweight queues only (notify, embed)
 # =============================================================================
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -72,21 +72,10 @@ USER app
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Stage 3: API - FastAPI + Gunicorn (Production API Server)
+# Heavy pipeline tasks (ingest/translate/render) run on Cloud Run Jobs — no ffmpeg needed here
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FROM base AS api
 
-# Switch to root to install ffmpeg
-USER root
-
-# Install ffmpeg for TTS audio conversion
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-    ffmpeg \
-    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
-    && apt-get clean
-
-# Switch back to non-root user
-USER app
-
 # Set production environment variables
 ENV APP_ENV=prod
 
@@ -104,22 +93,11 @@ ENTRYPOINT ["tini", "--"]
 CMD ["gunicorn", "-c", "gunicorn_conf.py", "app.main:app"]
 
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# Stage 4: Worker - Celery Worker (with ffmpeg for video processing)
+# Stage 4: Worker - Celery Worker (lightweight queues: notify, embed)
+# Heavy queues (ingest/translate/render/tts) run on Cloud Run Jobs — no ffmpeg needed here
 # -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 FROM base AS worker
 
-# Switch back to root to install ffmpeg
-USER root
-
-# Install ffmpeg for video processing
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-    ffmpeg \
-    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* \
-    && apt-get clean
-
-# Switch back to non-root user
-USER app
-
 # Set production environment variables
 # WORKER_CONCURRENCY can be overridden at runtime (default: 8)
 ENV APP_ENV=prod \