diff --git a/internal/templatex/functions.go b/internal/templatex/functions.go
index 95342b5f..8f164def 100644
--- a/internal/templatex/functions.go
+++ b/internal/templatex/functions.go
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ import (
 	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 	"text/template"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/sap/go-generics/slices"
 	"github.com/spf13/cast"
@@ -26,6 +27,8 @@ import (
 	"k8s.io/client-go/tools/clientcmd"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/client"
 	kyaml "sigs.k8s.io/yaml"
+
+	"github.com/sap/component-operator-runtime/pkg/types"
 )
 
 // TODO: review the usage of the cast.To* function; they seem to be a little unsafe (e.g. with range overflows)
@@ -50,6 +53,7 @@ func FuncMap() template.FuncMap {
 		"fromJsonArray":            fromJsonArray,
 		"mustFromJsonArray":        fromJsonArray,
 		"required":                 required,
+		"failRetriable":            failRetriable,
 		"bitwiseShiftLeft":         bitwiseShiftLeft,
 		"bitwiseShiftRight":        bitwiseShiftRight,
 		"bitwiseAnd":               bitwiseAnd,
@@ -167,6 +171,15 @@ func required(warn string, data any) (any, error) {
 	return data, nil
 }
 
+func failRetriable(after string, msg string) (string, error) {
+	retryAfter, err := time.ParseDuration(after)
+	if err != nil {
+		// TODO: we could even panic here ...
+		return "", err
+	}
+	return "", types.NewRetriableError(errors.New(msg), &retryAfter)
+}
+
 func bitwiseShiftLeft(by any, arg any) (uint64, error) {
 	a, err := cast.ToUint64E(arg)
 	if err != nil {
diff --git a/internal/templatex/functions_test.go b/internal/templatex/functions_test.go
index 4ad703e7..97aa7dac 100644
--- a/internal/templatex/functions_test.go
+++ b/internal/templatex/functions_test.go
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ import (
 	. "github.com/onsi/ginkgo/v2"
 	. "github.com/onsi/gomega"
 	. "github.com/onsi/gomega/gcustom"
+
+	"github.com/sap/component-operator-runtime/pkg/types"
 )
 
 var _ = Describe("testing: functions.go", func() {
@@ -314,6 +316,21 @@ var _ = Describe("testing: functions.go", func() {
 
 	})
 
+	Describe("testing: failRetriable", func() {
+
+		It("should return a retriable error", func() {
+			res, err := failRetriable("5s", "test error")
+			Expect(res).To(Equal(""))
+			Expect(err).To(HaveOccurred())
+			Expect(err.Error()).To(Equal("test error"))
+			Expect(err).To(BeAssignableToTypeOf(types.RetriableError{}))
+			retryAfter := err.(types.RetriableError).RetryAfter()
+			Expect(retryAfter).NotTo(BeNil())
+			Expect(*retryAfter).To(Equal(5 * time.Second))
+		})
+
+	})
+
 	Describe("testing: bitwiseShiftLeft", func() {
 
 		It("should calculate the bitwise left shift correctly", func() {