diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index a95cb8ee23..558e6ca8d6 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -349,9 +349,7 @@ fi
 
 # Append `-DFIND_RAFT_CPP=ON` to EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS unless a user specified the option.
 SKBUILD_EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS="${EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS}"
-if [[ "${EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS}" != *"DFIND_RAFT_CPP"* ]]; then
-    SKBUILD_EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS="${SKBUILD_EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS} -DFIND_RAFT_CPP=ON"
-fi
+
 # Replace spaces with semicolons in SKBUILD_EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS
 SKBUILD_EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS=$(echo ${SKBUILD_EXTRA_CMAKE_ARGS} | sed 's/ /;/g')
 
diff --git a/python/libraft/CMakeLists.txt b/python/libraft/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..fde6f34ee3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/libraft/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+# =============================================================================
+# Copyright (c) 2024, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except
+# in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+# http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License
+# is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express
+# or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under
+# the License.
+# =============================================================================
+
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.26.4 FATAL_ERROR)
+
+include(../../rapids_config.cmake)
+
+include(rapids-cuda)
+rapids_cuda_init_architectures(libraft-python)
+
+project(
+  libraft-python
+  VERSION "${RAPIDS_VERSION}"
+  LANGUAGES CXX CUDA
+)
+
+option(USE_CUDA_MATH_WHEELS "Use the CUDA math wheels instead of the system libraries" OFF)
+
+# Check if raft is already available. If so, it is the user's responsibility to ensure that the
+# CMake package is also available at build time of the Python raft package.
+find_package(raft "${RAPIDS_VERSION}")
+
+if(raft_FOUND)
+  return()
+endif()
+
+unset(raft_FOUND)
+
+set(BUILD_TESTS OFF)
+set(BUILD_PRIMS_BENCH OFF)
+set(RAFT_COMPILE_LIBRARY ON)
+set(CUDA_STATIC_RUNTIME ON)
+set(CUDA_STATIC_MATH_LIBRARIES ON)
+if(CUDAToolkit_VERSION VERSION_GREATER_EQUAL 12.0)
+  set(CUDA_STATIC_MATH_LIBRARIES OFF)
+elseif(USE_CUDA_MATH_WHEELS)
+  message(FATAL_ERROR "Cannot use CUDA math wheels with CUDA < 12.0")
+endif()
+
+add_subdirectory(../../cpp raft-cpp)
+
+if(NOT CUDA_STATIC_MATH_LIBRARIES AND USE_CUDA_MATH_WHEELS)
+  set_property(
+    TARGET raft_lib
+    PROPERTY INSTALL_RPATH
+             "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/cublas/lib"
+             "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/curand/lib"
+             "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/cusolver/lib"
+             "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/cusparse/lib"
+             "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/nvjitlink/lib"
+  )
+endif()
diff --git a/python/libraft/LICENSE b/python/libraft/LICENSE
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..30cff7403d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/libraft/LICENSE
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../LICENSE
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/python/libraft/README.md b/python/libraft/README.md
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..fe84005413
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/libraft/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../README.md
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/python/libraft/libraft/VERSION b/python/libraft/libraft/VERSION
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000..d62dc733ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/libraft/libraft/VERSION
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../../VERSION
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/python/libraft/libraft/__init__.py b/python/libraft/libraft/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2df69256fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/libraft/libraft/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2024, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+from libraft._version import __git_commit__, __version__
+from libraft.load import load_library
diff --git a/python/libraft/libraft/_version.py b/python/libraft/libraft/_version.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a5171f19f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/libraft/libraft/_version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2023-2024, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import importlib.resources
+
+__version__ = (
+    importlib.resources.files(__package__).joinpath("VERSION").read_text().strip()
+)
+try:
+    __git_commit__ = (
+        importlib.resources.files(__package__)
+        .joinpath("GIT_COMMIT")
+        .read_text()
+        .strip()
+    )
+except FileNotFoundError:
+    __git_commit__ = ""
+
+__all__ = ["__git_commit__", "__version__"]
diff --git a/python/libraft/libraft/load.py b/python/libraft/libraft/load.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4cdd499323
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/libraft/libraft/load.py
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2024, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+#
+
+import ctypes
+import os
+
+# Loading with RTLD_LOCAL adds the library itself to the loader's
+# loaded library cache without loading any symbols into the global
+# namespace. This allows libraries that express a dependency on
+# this library to be loaded later and successfully satisfy this dependency
+# without polluting the global symbol table with symbols from
+# libraft that could conflict with symbols from other DSOs.
+PREFERRED_LOAD_FLAG = ctypes.RTLD_LOCAL
+
+
+def _load_system_installation(soname: str):
+    """Try to dlopen() the library indicated by ``soname``
+    Raises ``OSError`` if library cannot be loaded.
+    """
+    return ctypes.CDLL(soname, PREFERRED_LOAD_FLAG)
+
+
+def _load_wheel_installation(soname: str):
+    """Try to dlopen() the library indicated by ``soname``
+    Returns ``None`` if the library cannot be loaded.
+    """
+    if os.path.isfile(lib := os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "lib64", soname)):
+        return ctypes.CDLL(lib, PREFERRED_LOAD_FLAG)
+    return None
+
+
+def load_library():
+    """Dynamically load libcugraph.so and its dependencies"""
+    prefer_system_installation = (
+        os.getenv("RAPIDS_LIBRAFT_PREFER_SYSTEM_LIBRARY", "false").lower() != "false"
+    )
+
+    soname = "libraft.so"
+    libraft_lib = None
+    if prefer_system_installation:
+        # Prefer a system library if one is present to
+        # avoid clobbering symbols that other packages might expect, but if no
+        # other library is present use the one in the wheel.
+        try:
+            libraft_lib = _load_system_installation(soname)
+        except OSError:
+            libraft_lib = _load_wheel_installation(soname)
+    else:
+        # Prefer the libraries bundled in this package. If they aren't found
+        # (which might be the case in builds where the library was prebuilt before
+        # packaging the wheel), look for a system installation.
+        try:
+            libraft_lib = _load_wheel_installation(soname)
+            if libraft_lib is None:
+                libraft_lib = _load_system_installation(soname)
+        except OSError:
+            # If none of the searches above succeed, just silently return None
+            # and rely on other mechanisms (like RPATHs on other DSOs) to
+            # help the loader find the library.
+            pass
+
+    # The caller almost never needs to do anything with this library, but no
+    # harm in offering the option since this object at least provides a handle
+    # to inspect where libcugraph was loaded from.
+    return libraft_lib
diff --git a/python/libraft/pyproject.toml b/python/libraft/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4df05fa784
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/libraft/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2022, NVIDIA CORPORATION.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+[build-system]
+
+requires = [
+    "rapids-build-backend>=0.3.0,<0.4.0.dev0",
+    "scikit-build-core[pyproject]>=0.10.0",
+] # This list was generated by `rapids-dependency-file-generator`. To make changes, edit ../../dependencies.yaml and run `rapids-dependency-file-generator`.
+build-backend = "rapids_build_backend.build"
+
+[project]
+name = "libraft"
+dynamic = ["version"]
+description = "RAFT: Reusable Algorithms Functions and other Tools (C++)"
+readme = { file = "README.md", content-type = "text/markdown" }
+authors = [
+    { name = "NVIDIA Corporation" },
+]
+license = { text = "Apache 2.0" }
+requires-python = ">=3.10"
+dependencies = [
+    "cuda-python",
+    "numpy>=1.23,<3.0a0",
+    "nvidia-cublas",
+    "nvidia-curand",
+    "nvidia-cusolver",
+    "nvidia-cusparse",
+    "rmm==25.2.*,>=0.0.0a0",
+] # This list was generated by `rapids-dependency-file-generator`. To make changes, edit ../../dependencies.yaml and run `rapids-dependency-file-generator`.
+classifiers = [
+    "Intended Audience :: Developers",
+]
+
+[project.optional-dependencies]
+test = [
+    "cupy-cuda11x>=12.0.0",
+    "pytest-cov",
+    "pytest==7.*",
+    "scikit-learn",
+    "scipy",
+] # This list was generated by `rapids-dependency-file-generator`. To make changes, edit ../../dependencies.yaml and run `rapids-dependency-file-generator`.
+
+[project.urls]
+Homepage = "https://github.com/rapidsai/raft"
+Documentation = "https://docs.rapids.ai/api/raft/stable/"
+
+[tool.isort]
+line_length = 79
+multi_line_output = 3
+include_trailing_comma = true
+force_grid_wrap = 0
+combine_as_imports = true
+order_by_type = true
+known_first_party = [
+    "libraft",
+]
+default_section = "THIRDPARTY"
+sections = [
+    "FUTURE",
+    "STDLIB",
+    "THIRDPARTY",
+    "DASK",
+    "RAPIDS",
+    "FIRSTPARTY",
+    "LOCALFOLDER",
+]
+skip = [
+    "thirdparty",
+    ".eggs",
+    ".git",
+    ".hg",
+    ".mypy_cache",
+    ".tox",
+    ".venv",
+    "_build",
+    "buck-out",
+    "build",
+    "dist",
+    "__init__.py",
+]
+
+[tool.scikit-build]
+build-dir = "build/{wheel_tag}"
+cmake.build-type = "Release"
+cmake.version = "CMakeLists.txt"
+minimum-version = "build-system.requires"
+ninja.make-fallback = true
+sdist.exclude = ["*tests*"]
+sdist.reproducible = true
+wheel.packages = ["libraft"]
+
+[tool.scikit-build.metadata.version]
+provider = "scikit_build_core.metadata.regex"
+input = "libraft/VERSION"
+regex = "(?P<value>.*)"
+
+[tool.rapids-build-backend]
+build-backend = "scikit_build_core.build"
+requires = [
+    "cmake>=3.26.4,!=3.30.0",
+    "cuda-python",
+    "cython>=3.0.0,<3.1.0a0",
+    "ninja",
+    "rmm==25.2.*,>=0.0.0a0",
+] # This list was generated by `rapids-dependency-file-generator`. To make changes, edit ../../dependencies.yaml and run `rapids-dependency-file-generator`.
+dependencies-file = "../../dependencies.yaml"
+matrix-entry = "cuda_suffixed=true;use_cuda_wheels=true"
+
+[tool.pydistcheck]
+select = [
+    # NOTE: size threshold is managed via CLI args in CI scripts
+    "distro-too-large-compressed",
+]
diff --git a/python/pylibraft/CMakeLists.txt b/python/pylibraft/CMakeLists.txt
index 758c1e4711..faec24f0e3 100644
--- a/python/pylibraft/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/python/pylibraft/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -27,9 +27,6 @@ project(
   LANGUAGES CXX CUDA
 )
 
-option(FIND_RAFT_CPP "Search for existing RAFT C++ installations before defaulting to local files"
-       ON
-)
 option(USE_CUDA_MATH_WHEELS "Use the CUDA math wheels instead of the system libraries" OFF)
 
 # If the user requested it we attempt to find RAFT.
@@ -48,47 +45,8 @@ endif()
 
 include(rapids-cython-core)
 
-if(NOT raft_FOUND)
-  find_package(CUDAToolkit REQUIRED)
-
-  set(BUILD_TESTS OFF)
-  set(BUILD_PRIMS_BENCH OFF)
-  set(RAFT_COMPILE_LIBRARY ON)
-  set(CUDA_STATIC_RUNTIME ON)
-  set(CUDA_STATIC_MATH_LIBRARIES ON)
-  if(CUDAToolkit_VERSION VERSION_GREATER_EQUAL 12.0)
-    set(CUDA_STATIC_MATH_LIBRARIES OFF)
-  elseif(USE_CUDA_MATH_WHEELS)
-    message(FATAL_ERROR "Cannot use CUDA math wheels with CUDA < 12.0")
-  endif()
-
-  add_subdirectory(../../cpp raft-cpp EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)
-
-  if(NOT CUDA_STATIC_MATH_LIBRARIES AND USE_CUDA_MATH_WHEELS)
-    set_property(
-      TARGET raft_lib
-      PROPERTY INSTALL_RPATH
-               "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/cublas/lib"
-               "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/curand/lib"
-               "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/cusolver/lib"
-               "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/cusparse/lib"
-               "$ORIGIN/../nvidia/nvjitlink/lib"
-    )
-  endif()
-
-  # When building the C++ libraries from source we must copy libraft.so alongside the
-  # pairwise_distance and random Cython libraries TODO: when we have a single 'compiled' raft
-  # library, we shouldn't need this
-  set(cython_lib_dir pylibraft)
-  install(TARGETS raft_lib DESTINATION ${cython_lib_dir})
-endif()
-
 rapids_cython_init()
 
 add_subdirectory(pylibraft/common)
 add_subdirectory(pylibraft/random)
 add_subdirectory(pylibraft/sparse)
-
-if(DEFINED cython_lib_dir)
-  rapids_cython_add_rpath_entries(TARGET raft PATHS "${cython_lib_dir}")
-endif()