diff --git a/src/AzureAppConfigurationImpl.ts b/src/AzureAppConfigurationImpl.ts
index 1491b806..f3c84061 100644
--- a/src/AzureAppConfigurationImpl.ts
+++ b/src/AzureAppConfigurationImpl.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 // Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.
 // Licensed under the MIT license.
 
-import { AppConfigurationClient, ConfigurationSetting, ConfigurationSettingId, GetConfigurationSettingOptions, GetConfigurationSettingResponse, ListConfigurationSettingsOptions, featureFlagPrefix, isFeatureFlag } from "@azure/app-configuration";
+import { AppConfigurationClient, ConfigurationSetting, ConfigurationSettingId, GetConfigurationSettingOptions, GetConfigurationSettingResponse, ListConfigurationSettingsOptions, featureFlagPrefix, isFeatureFlag, isSecretReference } from "@azure/app-configuration";
 import { isRestError } from "@azure/core-rest-pipeline";
 import { AzureAppConfiguration, ConfigurationObjectConstructionOptions } from "./AzureAppConfiguration.js";
 import { AzureAppConfigurationOptions } from "./AzureAppConfigurationOptions.js";
@@ -83,6 +83,9 @@ export class AzureAppConfigurationImpl implements AzureAppConfiguration {
     #ffRefreshInterval: number = DEFAULT_REFRESH_INTERVAL_IN_MS;
     #ffRefreshTimer: RefreshTimer;
 
+    // Key Vault references
+    #resolveSecretInParallel: boolean = false;
+
     /**
      * Selectors of key-values obtained from @see AzureAppConfigurationOptions.selectors
      */
@@ -163,6 +166,10 @@ export class AzureAppConfigurationImpl implements AzureAppConfiguration {
             }
         }
 
+        if (options?.keyVaultOptions?.parallelSecretResolutionEnabled) {
+            this.#resolveSecretInParallel = options.keyVaultOptions.parallelSecretResolutionEnabled;
+        }
+
         this.#adapters.push(new AzureKeyVaultKeyValueAdapter(options?.keyVaultOptions));
         this.#adapters.push(new JsonKeyValueAdapter());
     }
@@ -484,7 +491,7 @@ export class AzureAppConfigurationImpl implements AzureAppConfiguration {
      */
     async #loadSelectedAndWatchedKeyValues() {
         const keyValues: [key: string, value: unknown][] = [];
-        const loadedSettings = await this.#loadConfigurationSettings();
+        const loadedSettings: ConfigurationSetting[] = await this.#loadConfigurationSettings();
         if (this.#refreshEnabled && !this.#watchAll) {
             await this.#updateWatchedKeyValuesEtag(loadedSettings);
         }
@@ -494,11 +501,25 @@ export class AzureAppConfigurationImpl implements AzureAppConfiguration {
             this.#aiConfigurationTracing.reset();
         }
 
-        // adapt configuration settings to key-values
+        const secretResolutionPromises: Promise<void>[] = [];
         for (const setting of loadedSettings) {
+            if (this.#resolveSecretInParallel && isSecretReference(setting)) {
+                // secret references are resolved asynchronously to improve performance
+                const secretResolutionPromise = this.#processKeyValue(setting)
+                    .then(([key, value]) => {
+                        keyValues.push([key, value]);
+                    });
+                secretResolutionPromises.push(secretResolutionPromise);
+                continue;
+            }
+            // adapt configuration settings to key-values
             const [key, value] = await this.#processKeyValue(setting);
             keyValues.push([key, value]);
         }
+        if (secretResolutionPromises.length > 0) {
+            // wait for all secret resolution promises to be resolved
+            await Promise.all(secretResolutionPromises);
+        }
 
         this.#clearLoadedKeyValues(); // clear existing key-values in case of configuration setting deletion
         for (const [k, v] of keyValues) {
@@ -543,7 +564,7 @@ export class AzureAppConfigurationImpl implements AzureAppConfiguration {
      */
     async #loadFeatureFlags() {
         const loadFeatureFlag = true;
-        const featureFlagSettings = await this.#loadConfigurationSettings(loadFeatureFlag);
+        const featureFlagSettings: ConfigurationSetting[] = await this.#loadConfigurationSettings(loadFeatureFlag);
 
         if (this.#requestTracingEnabled && this.#featureFlagTracing !== undefined) {
             // Reset old feature flag tracing in order to track the information present in the current response from server.
diff --git a/src/keyvault/KeyVaultOptions.ts b/src/keyvault/KeyVaultOptions.ts
index 132c9cf5..3cf4bad0 100644
--- a/src/keyvault/KeyVaultOptions.ts
+++ b/src/keyvault/KeyVaultOptions.ts
@@ -32,4 +32,12 @@ export interface KeyVaultOptions {
      * @returns The secret value.
      */
     secretResolver?: (keyVaultReference: URL) => string | Promise<string>;
+
+    /**
+     * Specifies whether to resolve the secret value in parallel.
+     *
+     * @remarks
+     * If not specified, the default value is false.
+     */
+    parallelSecretResolutionEnabled?: boolean;
 }
diff --git a/test/keyvault.test.ts b/test/keyvault.test.ts
index 81dc429d..8fd15a19 100644
--- a/test/keyvault.test.ts
+++ b/test/keyvault.test.ts
@@ -127,4 +127,16 @@ describe("key vault reference", function () {
         expect(settings.get("TestKey")).eq("SecretValue");
         expect(settings.get("TestKey2")).eq("SecretValue2");
     });
+
+    it("should resolve key vault reference in parallel", async () => {
+        const settings = await load(createMockedConnectionString(), {
+            keyVaultOptions: {
+                credential: createMockedTokenCredential(),
+                parallelSecretResolutionEnabled: true
+            }
+        });
+        expect(settings).not.undefined;
+        expect(settings.get("TestKey")).eq("SecretValue");
+        expect(settings.get("TestKeyFixedVersion")).eq("OldSecretValue");
+    });
 });