diff --git a/lib/bumblebee.ex b/lib/bumblebee.ex
index 63150243..1f0ea9b4 100644
--- a/lib/bumblebee.ex
+++ b/lib/bumblebee.ex
@@ -492,6 +492,10 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
     * `:spec` - the model specification to use when building the model.
       By default the specification is loaded using `load_spec/2`
 
+    * `:spec_overrides` - additional options to configure the model
+      specification with. This is a shorthand for using `load_spec/2`,
+      `configure/2` and passing as `:spec`
+
     * `:module` - the model specification module. By default it is
       inferred from the configuration file, if that is not possible,
       it must be specified explicitly
@@ -534,6 +538,11 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
       spec = Bumblebee.configure(spec, num_labels: 10)
       {:ok, resnet} = Bumblebee.load_model({:hf, "microsoft/resnet-50"}, spec: spec)
 
+  Or as a shorthand, you can pass just the options to override:
+
+      {:ok, resnet} =
+        Bumblebee.load_model({:hf, "microsoft/resnet-50"}, spec_overrides: [num_labels: 10])
+
   """
   @doc type: :model
   @spec load_model(repository(), keyword()) :: {:ok, model_info()} | {:error, String.t()}
@@ -543,6 +552,7 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
     opts =
       Keyword.validate!(opts, [
         :spec,
+        :spec_overrides,
         :module,
         :architecture,
         :params_variant,
@@ -561,10 +571,19 @@ defmodule Bumblebee do
   end
 
   defp maybe_load_model_spec(opts, repository, repo_files) do
-    if spec = opts[:spec] do
-      {:ok, spec}
-    else
-      do_load_spec(repository, repo_files, opts[:module], opts[:architecture])
+    spec_result =
+      if spec = opts[:spec] do
+        {:ok, spec}
+      else
+        do_load_spec(repository, repo_files, opts[:module], opts[:architecture])
+      end
+
+    with {:ok, spec} <- spec_result do
+      if options = opts[:spec_overrides] do
+        {:ok, configure(spec, options)}
+      else
+        {:ok, spec}
+      end
     end
   end
 
diff --git a/test/bumblebee/vision/dino_v2_test.exs b/test/bumblebee/vision/dino_v2_test.exs
index c9140cc1..3151f63b 100644
--- a/test/bumblebee/vision/dino_v2_test.exs
+++ b/test/bumblebee/vision/dino_v2_test.exs
@@ -143,14 +143,9 @@ defmodule Bumblebee.Vision.DinoV2Test do
   end
 
   test ":backbone with different feature map subset" do
-    assert {:ok, spec} =
-             Bumblebee.load_spec({:hf, "hf-internal-testing/tiny-random-Dinov2Backbone"})
-
-    spec = Bumblebee.configure(spec, backbone_output_indices: [0, 2])
-
     assert {:ok, %{model: model, params: params, spec: spec}} =
              Bumblebee.load_model({:hf, "hf-internal-testing/tiny-random-Dinov2Backbone"},
-               spec: spec
+               spec_overrides: [backbone_output_indices: [0, 2]]
              )
 
     assert %Bumblebee.Vision.DinoV2{architecture: :backbone} = spec