diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 0204d01d3..1fc5d9f24 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -177,3 +177,8 @@ disable-failwhale: ## Disable the failwhale app and enable api
 	cf unmap-route notify-api-failwhale ${DNS_NAME} --hostname api
 	cf stop notify-api-failwhale
 	@echo "Failwhale is disabled"
+
+.PHONY: run-celery-with-docker
+run-celery-with-docker: ## Run celery in Docker container (useful if you can't install pycurl locally)
+	docker build -f docker/Dockerfile -t notifications-api .
+	./scripts/run_with_docker.sh make run-celery
diff --git a/app/config.py b/app/config.py
index 0afc852ed..b4df84345 100644
--- a/app/config.py
+++ b/app/config.py
@@ -427,7 +427,7 @@ class Development(Config):
     NOTIFY_LOG_PATH = 'application.log'
     NOTIFY_EMAIL_DOMAIN = "notify.tools"
 
-    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = 'postgresql://localhost/notification_api'
+    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = os.getenv('SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI', 'postgresql://localhost/notification_api')
     REDIS_URL = 'redis://localhost:6379/0'
 
     ANTIVIRUS_ENABLED = os.getenv('ANTIVIRUS_ENABLED') == '1'
diff --git a/docker/Dockerfile b/docker/Dockerfile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d083a6f64
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/Dockerfile
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+FROM python:3.9-slim-bullseye as parent
+
+ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
+ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+
+RUN echo "Install base packages" && apt-get update \
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    build-essential \
+    git \
+    && echo "Install binary app dependencies" \
+    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+    libcurl4-openssl-dev \
+    libssl-dev \
+    && apt-get -y clean \
+    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* /tmp/*
+
+RUN pip install --upgrade pip
+
+WORKDIR /home/vcap/app
+
+COPY requirements.txt ./
+
+# RUN useradd celeryuser
+
+RUN \
+    echo "Installing python dependencies" \
+    && pip install -r requirements.txt
+
+COPY app app
+COPY run_celery.py .
+COPY environment.sh .
+COPY Makefile .
diff --git a/scripts/run_with_docker.sh b/scripts/run_with_docker.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..b423a7923
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/run_with_docker.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -eu
+
+DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME=notifications-api
+
+source environment.sh
+
+# this script should be run from within your virtualenv so you can access the aws cli
+AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID:-"$(aws configure get aws_access_key_id)"}
+AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY:-"$(aws configure get aws_secret_access_key)"}
+: "${SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI:=postgresql://postgres@host.docker.internal/notification_api}"
+
+docker run -it --rm \
+  -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=$AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID \
+  -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY \
+  -e SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI=$SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI \
+  -v $(pwd):/home/vcap/app \
+  ${DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME} \
+  ${@}