diff --git a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/FileSettingsRoleMappingUpgradeIT.java b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/FileSettingsRoleMappingUpgradeIT.java
index b3d4dfc68d399..834d97f755dfb 100644
--- a/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/FileSettingsRoleMappingUpgradeIT.java
+++ b/qa/rolling-upgrade/src/javaRestTest/java/org/elasticsearch/upgrades/FileSettingsRoleMappingUpgradeIT.java
@@ -25,12 +25,10 @@
 
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.List;
-import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.function.Supplier;
 
-import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.contains;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
-import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.instanceOf;
+import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasItem;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.is;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.not;
 import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.nullValue;
@@ -104,15 +102,17 @@ public void testRoleMappingsAppliedOnUpgrade() throws IOException {
             // the nodes have all been upgraded. Check they re-processed the role mappings in the settings file on
             // upgrade
             Request clusterStateRequest = new Request("GET", "/_cluster/state/metadata");
-            List<Object> roleMappings = new XContentTestUtils.JsonMapView(entityAsMap(client().performRequest(clusterStateRequest))).get(
-                "metadata.role_mappings.role_mappings"
+            List<Object> clusterStateRoleMappings = new XContentTestUtils.JsonMapView(
+                entityAsMap(client().performRequest(clusterStateRequest))
+            ).get("metadata.role_mappings.role_mappings");
+            assertThat(clusterStateRoleMappings, is(not(nullValue())));
+            assertThat(clusterStateRoleMappings.size(), equalTo(1));
+
+            assertThat(
+                entityAsMap(client().performRequest(new Request("GET", "/_security/role_mapping"))).keySet(),
+                // TODO change this to `contains` once the clean-up migration work is merged
+                hasItem("everyone_kibana-read-only-operator-mapping")
             );
-            assertThat(roleMappings, is(not(nullValue())));
-            assertThat(roleMappings.size(), equalTo(1));
-            assertThat(roleMappings, is(instanceOf(Map.class)));
-            @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
-            Map<String, Object> roleMapping = (Map<String, Object>) roleMappings;
-            assertThat(roleMapping.keySet(), contains("everyone_kibana-read-only-operator-mapping"));
         }
     }
 }