diff --git a/e2e/_suites/fleet/ingest_manager_test.go b/e2e/_suites/fleet/ingest_manager_test.go
index c2366e2785..7634467d4f 100644
--- a/e2e/_suites/fleet/ingest_manager_test.go
+++ b/e2e/_suites/fleet/ingest_manager_test.go
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@ func setUpSuite() {
 	}
 	common.AgentVersionBase = v
 
-	common.TimeoutFactor = shell.GetEnvInteger("TIMEOUT_FACTOR", common.TimeoutFactor)
 	common.AgentVersion = shell.GetEnv("BEAT_VERSION", common.AgentVersionBase)
 
 	// check if version is an alias
diff --git a/e2e/_suites/kubernetes-autodiscover/autodiscover_test.go b/e2e/_suites/kubernetes-autodiscover/autodiscover_test.go
index 667db8be18..9492ff7c14 100644
--- a/e2e/_suites/kubernetes-autodiscover/autodiscover_test.go
+++ b/e2e/_suites/kubernetes-autodiscover/autodiscover_test.go
@@ -37,14 +37,6 @@ const defaultBeatVersion = "8.0.0-SNAPSHOT"
 var defaultEventsWaitTimeout = 60 * time.Second
 var defaultDeployWaitTimeout = 60 * time.Second
 
-func init() {
-	// initialise timeout factor
-	common.TimeoutFactor = shell.GetEnvInteger("TIMEOUT_FACTOR", common.TimeoutFactor)
-
-	defaultEventsWaitTimeout = defaultEventsWaitTimeout * time.Duration(common.TimeoutFactor)
-	defaultDeployWaitTimeout = defaultDeployWaitTimeout * time.Duration(common.TimeoutFactor)
-}
-
 type podsManager struct {
 	kubectl kubernetes.Control
 	ctx     context.Context
@@ -472,6 +464,9 @@ func InitializeTestSuite(ctx *godog.TestSuiteContext) {
 		// init logger
 		config.Init()
 
+		defaultEventsWaitTimeout = defaultEventsWaitTimeout * time.Duration(common.TimeoutFactor)
+		defaultDeployWaitTimeout = defaultDeployWaitTimeout * time.Duration(common.TimeoutFactor)
+
 		err := cluster.Initialize(suiteContext, "testdata/kind.yml")
 		if err != nil {
 			log.WithError(err).Fatal("Failed to initialize cluster")
diff --git a/internal/common/retry.go b/internal/common/retry.go
index fa38cb95a1..2c221bd61f 100644
--- a/internal/common/retry.go
+++ b/internal/common/retry.go
@@ -8,12 +8,17 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	backoff "github.com/cenkalti/backoff/v4"
+	"github.com/elastic/e2e-testing/internal/shell"
 )
 
 // TimeoutFactor a multiplier for the max timeout when doing backoff retries.
 // It can be overriden by TIMEOUT_FACTOR env var
 var TimeoutFactor = 3
 
+func init() {
+	TimeoutFactor = shell.GetEnvInteger("TIMEOUT_FACTOR", TimeoutFactor)
+}
+
 // GetExponentialBackOff returns a preconfigured exponential backoff instance
 func GetExponentialBackOff(elapsedTime time.Duration) *backoff.ExponentialBackOff {
 	var (