diff --git a/bigframes/pandas/__init__.py b/bigframes/pandas/__init__.py
index 3c9bb003cc..3120e96b1a 100644
--- a/bigframes/pandas/__init__.py
+++ b/bigframes/pandas/__init__.py
@@ -597,10 +597,13 @@ def read_pickle(
 read_pickle.__doc__ = inspect.getdoc(bigframes.session.Session.read_pickle)
 
 
-def read_parquet(path: str | IO["bytes"]) -> bigframes.dataframe.DataFrame:
+def read_parquet(
+    path: str | IO["bytes"], *, engine: str = "auto"
+) -> bigframes.dataframe.DataFrame:
     return global_session.with_default_session(
         bigframes.session.Session.read_parquet,
         path,
+        engine=engine,
     )
 
 
diff --git a/bigframes/session/__init__.py b/bigframes/session/__init__.py
index ef4a349244..4b30a3a9d1 100644
--- a/bigframes/session/__init__.py
+++ b/bigframes/session/__init__.py
@@ -1130,19 +1130,32 @@ def read_pickle(
     def read_parquet(
         self,
         path: str | IO["bytes"],
+        *,
+        engine: str = "auto",
     ) -> dataframe.DataFrame:
-        # Note: "engine" is omitted because it is redundant. Loading a table
-        # from a pandas DataFrame will just create another parquet file + load
-        # job anyway.
         table = bigframes_io.random_table(self._anonymous_dataset)
 
-        job_config = bigquery.LoadJobConfig()
-        job_config.create_disposition = bigquery.CreateDisposition.CREATE_IF_NEEDED
-        job_config.source_format = bigquery.SourceFormat.PARQUET
-        job_config.write_disposition = bigquery.WriteDisposition.WRITE_EMPTY
-        job_config.labels = {"bigframes-api": "read_parquet"}
+        if engine == "bigquery":
+            job_config = bigquery.LoadJobConfig()
+            job_config.create_disposition = bigquery.CreateDisposition.CREATE_IF_NEEDED
+            job_config.source_format = bigquery.SourceFormat.PARQUET
+            job_config.write_disposition = bigquery.WriteDisposition.WRITE_EMPTY
+            job_config.labels = {"bigframes-api": "read_parquet"}
 
-        return self._read_bigquery_load_job(path, table, job_config=job_config)
+            return self._read_bigquery_load_job(path, table, job_config=job_config)
+        else:
+            read_parquet_kwargs: Dict[str, Any] = {}
+            if pandas.__version__.startswith("1."):
+                read_parquet_kwargs["use_nullable_dtypes"] = True
+            else:
+                read_parquet_kwargs["dtype_backend"] = "pyarrow"
+
+            pandas_obj = pandas.read_parquet(
+                path,
+                engine=engine,  # type: ignore
+                **read_parquet_kwargs,
+            )
+            return self._read_pandas(pandas_obj, "read_parquet")
 
     def read_json(
         self,
diff --git a/tests/system/small/test_session.py b/tests/system/small/test_session.py
index 85573472b9..2e2252be06 100644
--- a/tests/system/small/test_session.py
+++ b/tests/system/small/test_session.py
@@ -856,11 +856,19 @@ def test_read_pickle_gcs(session, penguins_pandas_df_default_index, gcs_folder):
     pd.testing.assert_frame_equal(penguins_pandas_df_default_index, df.to_pandas())
 
 
-def test_read_parquet_gcs(session: bigframes.Session, scalars_dfs, gcs_folder):
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("engine",),
+    (
+        ("auto",),
+        ("bigquery",),
+    ),
+)
+def test_read_parquet_gcs(session: bigframes.Session, scalars_dfs, gcs_folder, engine):
     scalars_df, _ = scalars_dfs
     # Include wildcard so that multiple files can be written/read if > 1 GB.
     # https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/exporting-data#exporting_data_into_one_or_more_files
     path = gcs_folder + test_read_parquet_gcs.__name__ + "*.parquet"
+
     df_in: bigframes.dataframe.DataFrame = scalars_df.copy()
     # GEOGRAPHY not supported in parquet export.
     df_in = df_in.drop(columns="geography_col")
@@ -869,8 +877,12 @@ def test_read_parquet_gcs(session: bigframes.Session, scalars_dfs, gcs_folder):
     df_write.index.name = f"ordering_id_{random.randrange(1_000_000)}"
     df_write.to_parquet(path, index=True)
 
+    # Only bigquery engine for reads supports wildcards in path name.
+    if engine != "bigquery":
+        path = path.replace("*", "000000000000")
+
     df_out = (
-        session.read_parquet(path)
+        session.read_parquet(path, engine=engine)
         # Restore order.
         .set_index(df_write.index.name).sort_index()
         # Restore index.
@@ -880,7 +892,8 @@ def test_read_parquet_gcs(session: bigframes.Session, scalars_dfs, gcs_folder):
     # DATETIME gets loaded as TIMESTAMP in parquet. See:
     # https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/exporting-data#parquet_export_details
     df_out = df_out.assign(
-        datetime_col=df_out["datetime_col"].astype("timestamp[us][pyarrow]")
+        datetime_col=df_out["datetime_col"].astype("timestamp[us][pyarrow]"),
+        timestamp_col=df_out["timestamp_col"].astype("timestamp[us, tz=UTC][pyarrow]"),
     )
 
     # Make sure we actually have at least some values before comparing.
@@ -919,7 +932,7 @@ def test_read_parquet_gcs_compressed(
     df_write.to_parquet(path, compression=compression, index=True)
 
     df_out = (
-        session.read_parquet(path)
+        session.read_parquet(path, engine="bigquery")
         # Restore order.
         .set_index(df_write.index.name).sort_index()
         # Restore index.
diff --git a/third_party/bigframes_vendored/pandas/io/parquet.py b/third_party/bigframes_vendored/pandas/io/parquet.py
index 0f664e70fc..877a384b6d 100644
--- a/third_party/bigframes_vendored/pandas/io/parquet.py
+++ b/third_party/bigframes_vendored/pandas/io/parquet.py
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ class ParquetIOMixin:
     def read_parquet(
         self,
         path: str,
+        *,
+        engine: str = "auto",
     ):
         r"""Load a Parquet object from the file path (local or Cloud Storage), returning a DataFrame.
 
@@ -23,11 +25,15 @@ def read_parquet(
             >>> bpd.options.display.progress_bar = None
 
             >>> gcs_path = "gs://cloud-samples-data/bigquery/us-states/us-states.parquet"
-            >>> df = bpd.read_parquet(path=gcs_path)
+            >>> df = bpd.read_parquet(path=gcs_path, engine="bigquery")
 
         Args:
             path (str):
                 Local or Cloud Storage path to Parquet file.
+            engine (str):
+                One of ``'auto', 'pyarrow', 'fastparquet'``, or ``'bigquery'``.
+                Parquet library to parse the file. If set to ``'bigquery'``,
+                order is not preserved. Default, ``'auto'``.
 
         Returns:
             bigframes.dataframe.DataFrame: A BigQuery DataFrames.