diff --git a/internal/controller/authenticator/jwtcachefiller/jwtcachefiller_test.go b/internal/controller/authenticator/jwtcachefiller/jwtcachefiller_test.go
index 5a43751e..19eb1731 100644
--- a/internal/controller/authenticator/jwtcachefiller/jwtcachefiller_test.go
+++ b/internal/controller/authenticator/jwtcachefiller/jwtcachefiller_test.go
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 	"net/http"
 	"net/http/httptest"
+	"strings"
 	"testing"
 	"time"
 
@@ -25,6 +26,7 @@ import (
 	"gopkg.in/square/go-jose.v2/jwt"
 	metav1 "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime"
+	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/wait"
 	"k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/authentication/authenticator"
 	"k8s.io/apiserver/pkg/authentication/user"
 
@@ -345,15 +347,6 @@ func TestController(t *testing.T) {
 				return // end of test unless we wanted to run tests on the resulting authenticator from the cache
 			}
 
-			// The implementation of AuthenticateToken() that we use waits 10 seconds after creation to
-			// perform OIDC discovery. Therefore, the JWTAuthenticator is not functional for the first 10
-			// seconds. We sleep for 13 seconds in this unit test to give a little bit of cushion to that 10
-			// second delay.
-			//
-			// We should get rid of this 10 second delay. See
-			// https://github.com/vmware-tanzu/pinniped/issues/260.
-			time.Sleep(time.Second * 13)
-
 			// We expected the cache to have an entry, so pull that entry from the cache and test it.
 			expectedCacheKey := authncache.Key{
 				APIGroup: auth1alpha1.GroupName,
@@ -428,7 +421,17 @@ func TestController(t *testing.T) {
 						tt.wantUsernameClaim,
 						username,
 					)
-					rsp, authenticated, err := cachedAuthenticator.AuthenticateToken(context.Background(), jwt)
+
+					// Loop for a while here to allow the underlying OIDC authenticator to initialize itself asynchronously.
+					var (
+						rsp           *authenticator.Response
+						authenticated bool
+						err           error
+					)
+					_ = wait.PollImmediate(10*time.Millisecond, 5*time.Second, func() (bool, error) {
+						rsp, authenticated, err = cachedAuthenticator.AuthenticateToken(context.Background(), jwt)
+						return !isNotInitialized(err), nil
+					})
 					if test.wantErrorRegexp != "" {
 						require.Error(t, err)
 						require.Regexp(t, test.wantErrorRegexp, err.Error())
@@ -443,6 +446,12 @@ func TestController(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+// isNotInitialized checks if the error is the internally-defined "oidc: authenticator not initialized" error from
+// the underlying OIDC authenticator, which is initialized asynchronously.
+func isNotInitialized(err error) bool {
+	return err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "authenticator not initialized")
+}
+
 func testTableForAuthenticateTokenTests(
 	t *testing.T,
 	goodRSASigningKey *rsa.PrivateKey,
diff --git a/test/integration/e2e_test.go b/test/integration/e2e_test.go
index 2cb207e7..b70a5053 100644
--- a/test/integration/e2e_test.go
+++ b/test/integration/e2e_test.go
@@ -151,11 +151,6 @@ func TestE2EFullIntegration(t *testing.T) {
 	kubeconfigPath := filepath.Join(tempDir, "kubeconfig.yaml")
 	require.NoError(t, ioutil.WriteFile(kubeconfigPath, []byte(kubeconfigYAML), 0600))
 
-	// Wait 10 seconds for the JWTAuthenticator to become initialized.
-	// TODO: remove this sleep once we have fixed the initialization problem.
-	t.Log("sleeping 10s to wait for JWTAuthenticator to become initialized")
-	time.Sleep(10 * time.Second)
-
 	// Run "kubectl get namespaces" which should trigger a browser login via the plugin.
 	start := time.Now()
 	kubectlCmd := exec.CommandContext(ctx, "kubectl", "get", "namespace", "--kubeconfig", kubeconfigPath)