diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/subunit2sql_run_at_cli_opt-ab65e3b69b29e0b0.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/subunit2sql_run_at_cli_opt-ab65e3b69b29e0b0.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..843b5e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/subunit2sql_run_at_cli_opt-ab65e3b69b29e0b0.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+features:
+  - A new CLI option, "run_at" is available on the subunit2sql CLI. This
+    enables setting a specific date and time to use for the run_at column
+    of the run being created. If one is not specified the previous default
+    behavior of using the current time is still used.
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 6416d59..c79b0ec 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -7,3 +7,4 @@ python-subunit>=0.0.18
 six>=1.5.2
 SQLAlchemy>=0.8.2
 stevedore>=1.3.0
+python-dateutil>=2.4.2
diff --git a/subunit2sql/shell.py b/subunit2sql/shell.py
index 149feb3..29587b6 100644
--- a/subunit2sql/shell.py
+++ b/subunit2sql/shell.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 import copy
 import sys
 
+from dateutil import parser as date_parser
 from oslo_config import cfg
 from oslo_db import options
 from pbr import version
@@ -47,6 +48,10 @@ SHELL_OPTS = [
                help='An optional prefix to identify global test attrs '
                     'and treat it as test metadata instead of test_run '
                     'metadata'),
+    cfg.StrOpt('run_at', default=None,
+               help="The optional datetime string for the run was started, "
+                    "If one isn't provided the date and time of when "
+                    "subunit2sql is called will be used")
 ]
 
 _version_ = version.VersionInfo('subunit2sql').version_string()
@@ -128,9 +133,13 @@ def process_results(results):
     session = api.get_session()
     run_time = results.pop('run_time')
     totals = get_run_totals(results)
+    if CONF.run_at:
+        run_at = date_parser.parse(CONF.run_at)
+    else:
+        run_at = None
     db_run = api.create_run(totals['skips'], totals['fails'],
                             totals['success'], run_time, CONF.artifacts,
-                            id=CONF.run_id, session=session)
+                            id=CONF.run_id, run_at=run_at, session=session)
     if CONF.run_meta:
         api.add_run_metadata(CONF.run_meta, db_run.id, session)
     for test in results: