diff --git a/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/MachineLearningIT.java b/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/MachineLearningIT.java
index 07d7187fd1d70..f7b7b148f660b 100644
--- a/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/MachineLearningIT.java
+++ b/client/rest-high-level/src/test/java/org/elasticsearch/client/MachineLearningIT.java
@@ -878,6 +878,18 @@ private  String createExpiredData(String jobId) throws Exception {
 
         waitForJobToClose(jobId);
 
+        long prevJobTimeStamp = System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000;
+
+        // Check that the current timestamp component, in seconds, differs from previously.
+        // Note that we used to use an 'awaitBusy(() -> false, 1, TimeUnit.SECONDS);'
+        // for the same purpose but the new approach...
+        // a) explicitly checks that the timestamps, in seconds, are actually different and
+        // b) is slightly more efficient since we may not need to wait an entire second for the timestamp to increment
+        assertBusy(() -> {
+            long timeNow = System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000;
+            assertFalse(prevJobTimeStamp >= timeNow);
+        });
+
         // Update snapshot timestamp to force it out of snapshot retention window
         long oneDayAgo = nowMillis - TimeValue.timeValueHours(24).getMillis() - 1;
         updateModelSnapshotTimestamp(jobId, String.valueOf(oneDayAgo));
@@ -1418,6 +1430,7 @@ private void startDatafeed(String datafeedId, String start, String end) throws E
     }
 
     private void updateModelSnapshotTimestamp(String jobId, String timestamp) throws Exception {
+
         MachineLearningClient machineLearningClient = highLevelClient().machineLearning();
 
         GetModelSnapshotsRequest getModelSnapshotsRequest = new GetModelSnapshotsRequest(jobId);
@@ -1435,9 +1448,6 @@ private void updateModelSnapshotTimestamp(String jobId, String timestamp) throws
         UpdateRequest updateSnapshotRequest = new UpdateRequest(".ml-anomalies-" + jobId, "_doc", documentId);
         updateSnapshotRequest.doc(snapshotUpdate.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8), XContentType.JSON);
         highLevelClient().update(updateSnapshotRequest, RequestOptions.DEFAULT);
-
-        // Wait a second to ensure subsequent model snapshots will have a different ID (it depends on epoch seconds)
-        awaitBusy(() -> false, 1, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
     }