diff --git a/spec/factories/project_ci_cd_settings.rb b/spec/factories/project_ci_cd_settings.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index 2e85b54e245..00000000000
--- a/spec/factories/project_ci_cd_settings.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-FactoryBot.define do
-  factory :project_ci_cd_setting do
-    project
-
-    initialize_with do
-      # ci_cd_settings are automatically created when a project is created
-      project&.ci_cd_settings || new
-    end
-  end
-end
diff --git a/spec/factories/projects.rb b/spec/factories/projects.rb
index e0e72e7f2ce..aed5eab8044 100644
--- a/spec/factories/projects.rb
+++ b/spec/factories/projects.rb
@@ -14,7 +14,6 @@ FactoryBot.define do
     # Associations
     namespace
     creator { group ? create(:user) : namespace&.owner }
-    ci_cd_settings strategy: :build, factory: :project_ci_cd_setting, project: nil
 
     transient do
       # Nest Project Feature attributes
@@ -24,6 +23,10 @@ FactoryBot.define do
       issues_access_level ProjectFeature::ENABLED
       merge_requests_access_level ProjectFeature::ENABLED
       repository_access_level ProjectFeature::ENABLED
+
+      # we can't assign the delegated `#ci_cd_settings` attributes directly, as the
+      # `#ci_cd_settings` relation needs to be created first
+      group_runners_enabled nil
     end
 
     after(:create) do |project, evaluator|
@@ -48,6 +51,9 @@ FactoryBot.define do
       end
 
       project.group&.refresh_members_authorized_projects
+
+      # assign the delegated `#ci_cd_settings` attributes after create
+      project.reload.group_runners_enabled = evaluator.group_runners_enabled unless evaluator.group_runners_enabled.nil?
     end
 
     trait :public do