diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6a8aa52..496e29d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,8 +7,18 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+### Added
+
+- Support configuring `Faraday::ConnectionFailed` and `Faraday::TimeoutError`
+  retry behaviour independently via `Service.new(connection_failed_retry_options:,
+  timeout_retry_options:)`, defaulting connection failures to a more generous
+  retry budget than timeouts
+
 ### Changed
 
+- `Faraday::ResourceNotFound` (404) is no longer retried, since a 404 is not a
+  transient failure and retrying it only adds latency
+
 - Lowered minimum supported Ruby version and removed the pinned `.ruby-version`
   file in favor of explicit versions per CI workflow
 - Added a CI test matrix covering Ruby 3.4 and 4.0
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f7cd62b..668dc93 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -113,6 +113,20 @@ all optional except `url`:
 - `logger` - an object responding to the standard `Logger` levels
   (`info`, `warn`, `error`, `debug`), used to log request/response details.
   Defaults to `Rails.logger` when running under Rails, otherwise `nil`
+- `connection_failed_retry_options` - a hash of
+  [`faraday-retry`](https://github.com/lostisland/faraday-retry) options
+  (`max`, `interval`, `interval_randomness`, `backoff_factor`) applied to
+  `Faraday::ConnectionFailed` errors (e.g. a colocated service restarting).
+  Merged over the default of `max: 4, interval: 0.5, interval_randomness: 0.25,
+  backoff_factor: 2`
+- `timeout_retry_options` - same shape as above, applied to
+  `Faraday::TimeoutError` errors. Merged over the default of `max: 2,
+  interval: 0.25, interval_randomness: 0.5, backoff_factor: 2`. Kept more
+  conservative than the connection-failure retry budget since retrying an
+  overloaded upstream aggressively can make things worse
+
+`Faraday::ResourceNotFound` (404) responses are not retried, since a 404 is
+not a transient failure.
 
 ---
 
diff --git a/lib/data_services_api/service.rb b/lib/data_services_api/service.rb
index 908cef4..80b5cfa 100644
--- a/lib/data_services_api/service.rb
+++ b/lib/data_services_api/service.rb
@@ -1,15 +1,39 @@
 # frozen_string_literal: true
 
+require 'faraday'
+
 module DataServicesApi
   # Denotes the encapsulated DataServicesAPI service
   class Service # rubocop:disable Metrics/ClassLength
     attr_reader :instrumenter, :logger, :parser, :url
 
+    DEFAULT_CONNECTION_FAILED_RETRY_OPTIONS = {
+      max: 4,
+      interval: 0.5,
+      interval_randomness: 0.25,
+      backoff_factor: 2,
+      exceptions: [Faraday::ConnectionFailed]
+    }.freeze
+
+    DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_RETRY_OPTIONS = {
+      max: 2,
+      interval: 0.25,
+      interval_randomness: 0.5,
+      backoff_factor: 2,
+      exceptions: [Faraday::TimeoutError]
+    }.freeze
+
     def initialize(config = {})
       @instrumenter = config[:instrumenter] || (in_rails? && ActiveSupport::Notifications)
       @logger = config[:logger] || (in_rails? && Rails.logger)
       @parser = Yajl::Parser.new
       @url = config[:url]
+      @connection_failed_retry_options = DEFAULT_CONNECTION_FAILED_RETRY_OPTIONS.merge(
+        config[:connection_failed_retry_options] || {}
+      )
+      @timeout_retry_options = DEFAULT_TIMEOUT_RETRY_OPTIONS.merge(
+        config[:timeout_retry_options] || {}
+      )
     end
 
     def datasets
@@ -153,14 +177,6 @@ def post_to_api(http_url, json) # rubocop:disable Metrics/AbcSize
     end
 
     def create_http_connection(http_url, auth = false) # rubocop:disable Metrics/MethodLength
-      retry_options = {
-        max: 2,
-        interval: 0.05,
-        interval_randomness: 0.5,
-        backoff_factor: 2,
-        exceptions: [Faraday::TimeoutError, Faraday::ConnectionFailed, Faraday::ResourceNotFound]
-      }
-
       Faraday.new(url: http_url) do |config|
         config.use Faraday::Request::UrlEncoded
         config.use Faraday::FollowRedirects::Middleware
@@ -168,7 +184,11 @@ def create_http_connection(http_url, auth = false) # rubocop:disable Metrics/Met
         config.request :authorization, :basic, api_user, api_pw if auth
         # instrument the request to log the time it takes to complete but only if we're in a Rails environment
         config.request :instrumentation, name: 'requests.api' if in_rails?
-        config.request :retry, retry_options
+        # Faraday::ResourceNotFound (404) is not transient and is deliberately not retried.
+        # Inner middleware exhausts its own budget before the exception reaches the next layer,
+        # so stack the more conservative timeout retry inside the more generous connection retry.
+        config.request :retry, @connection_failed_retry_options
+        config.request :retry, @timeout_retry_options
 
         config.response :json
         # ! Since responses are processed by the middleware stack in reverse order