diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/MachineLearning.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/MachineLearning.java
index 212b481ca11..964175df95f 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/MachineLearning.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/MachineLearning.java
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ public class MachineLearning implements ActionPlugin {
     public static final String BASE_PATH = "/_xpack/ml/";
     public static final String DATAFEED_THREAD_POOL_NAME = NAME + "_datafeed";
     public static final String AUTODETECT_THREAD_POOL_NAME = NAME + "_autodetect";
-    public static final String NORMALIZER_THREAD_POOL_NAME = NAME + "_normalizer";
+    public static final String UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME = NAME + "_utility";
 
     public static final Setting<Boolean> AUTODETECT_PROCESS =
             Setting.boolSetting("xpack.ml.autodetect_process", true, Property.NodeScope);
@@ -296,7 +296,7 @@ public class MachineLearning implements ActionPlugin {
                                         executorService) -> new MultiplyingNormalizerProcess(settings, 1.0);
         }
         NormalizerFactory normalizerFactory = new NormalizerFactory(normalizerProcessFactory,
-                threadPool.executor(MachineLearning.NORMALIZER_THREAD_POOL_NAME));
+                threadPool.executor(MachineLearning.UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME));
         AutodetectProcessManager autodetectProcessManager = new AutodetectProcessManager(settings, internalClient, threadPool,
                 jobManager, jobProvider, jobResultsPersister, jobDataCountsPersister, autodetectProcessFactory,
                 normalizerFactory, xContentRegistry, auditor);
@@ -437,15 +437,17 @@ public class MachineLearning implements ActionPlugin {
             return emptyList();
         }
         int maxNumberOfJobs = AutodetectProcessManager.MAX_RUNNING_JOBS_PER_NODE.get(settings);
-        // 4 threads: for cpp logging, result processing, state processing and
+        // 4 threads per job: for cpp logging, result processing, state processing and
         // AutodetectProcessManager worker thread:
         FixedExecutorBuilder autoDetect = new FixedExecutorBuilder(settings, AUTODETECT_THREAD_POOL_NAME,
                 maxNumberOfJobs * 4, 4, "xpack.ml.autodetect_thread_pool");
 
-        // 3 threads: normalization (cpp logging, result handling) and
-        // renormalization (ShortCircuitingRenormalizer):
-        FixedExecutorBuilder renormalizer = new FixedExecutorBuilder(settings, NORMALIZER_THREAD_POOL_NAME,
-                maxNumberOfJobs * 3, 200, "xpack.ml.normalizer_thread_pool");
+        // 4 threads per job: processing logging, result and state of the renormalization process.
+        // Renormalization does't run for the entire lifetime of a job, so additionally autodetect process
+        // based operation (open, close, flush, post data), datafeed based operations (start and stop)
+        // and deleting expired data use this threadpool too and queue up if all threads are busy.
+        FixedExecutorBuilder renormalizer = new FixedExecutorBuilder(settings, UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME,
+                maxNumberOfJobs * 4, 500, "xpack.ml.utility_thread_pool");
 
         // TODO: if datafeed and non datafeed jobs are considered more equal and the datafeed and
         // autodetect process are created at the same time then these two different TPs can merge.
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/CloseJobAction.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/CloseJobAction.java
index e2dead6ebc6..f67a2bbb95a 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/CloseJobAction.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/CloseJobAction.java
@@ -362,7 +362,7 @@ public class CloseJobAction extends Action<CloseJobAction.Request, CloseJobActio
             JobTaskStatus taskStatus = new JobTaskStatus(JobState.CLOSING, jobTask.getAllocationId());
             jobTask.updatePersistentStatus(taskStatus, ActionListener.wrap(task -> {
                 // we need to fork because we are now on a network threadpool and closeJob method may take a while to complete:
-                threadPool.executor(ThreadPool.Names.MANAGEMENT).execute(new AbstractRunnable() {
+                threadPool.executor(MachineLearning.UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME).execute(new AbstractRunnable() {
                     @Override
                     public void onFailure(Exception e) {
                         listener.onFailure(e);
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/DeleteExpiredDataAction.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/DeleteExpiredDataAction.java
index b8dd8dbbeb1..2f38aed0768 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/DeleteExpiredDataAction.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/DeleteExpiredDataAction.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.ToXContentObject;
 import org.elasticsearch.common.xcontent.XContentBuilder;
 import org.elasticsearch.threadpool.ThreadPool;
 import org.elasticsearch.transport.TransportService;
+import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.MachineLearning;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.job.retention.ExpiredModelSnapshotsRemover;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.job.retention.ExpiredResultsRemover;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.notifications.Auditor;
@@ -133,7 +134,7 @@ public class DeleteExpiredDataAction extends Action<DeleteExpiredDataAction.Requ
         @Override
         protected void doExecute(Request request, ActionListener<Response> listener) {
             logger.info("Deleting expired data");
-            threadPool.executor(ThreadPool.Names.MANAGEMENT).execute(() -> deleteExpiredData(listener));
+            threadPool.executor(MachineLearning.UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME).execute(() -> deleteExpiredData(listener));
         }
 
         private void deleteExpiredData(ActionListener<Response> listener) {
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/OpenJobAction.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/OpenJobAction.java
index 59dc047c7ee..6ad6135fd8f 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/OpenJobAction.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/OpenJobAction.java
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@ public class OpenJobAction extends Action<OpenJobAction.Request, OpenJobAction.R
 
         public OpenJobPersistentTasksExecutor(Settings settings, ClusterService clusterService,
                                               AutodetectProcessManager autodetectProcessManager) {
-            super(settings, TASK_NAME, ThreadPool.Names.MANAGEMENT);
+            super(settings, TASK_NAME, MachineLearning.UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME);
             this.autodetectProcessManager = autodetectProcessManager;
             this.maxNumberOfOpenJobs = AutodetectProcessManager.MAX_RUNNING_JOBS_PER_NODE.get(settings);
             this.maxConcurrentJobAllocations = MachineLearning.CONCURRENT_JOB_ALLOCATIONS.get(settings);
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StartDatafeedAction.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StartDatafeedAction.java
index e5a0449de9b..2dd2b389dfe 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StartDatafeedAction.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StartDatafeedAction.java
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.tasks.TaskId;
 import org.elasticsearch.threadpool.ThreadPool;
 import org.elasticsearch.transport.TransportService;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.XPackPlugin;
+import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.MachineLearning;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.MlMetadata;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.datafeed.DatafeedConfig;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.datafeed.DatafeedJobValidator;
@@ -505,7 +506,7 @@ public class StartDatafeedAction
         private final IndexNameExpressionResolver resolver;
 
         public StartDatafeedPersistentTasksExecutor(Settings settings, DatafeedManager datafeedManager) {
-            super(settings, TASK_NAME, ThreadPool.Names.MANAGEMENT);
+            super(settings, TASK_NAME, MachineLearning.UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME);
             this.datafeedManager = datafeedManager;
             this.resolver = new IndexNameExpressionResolver(settings);
         }
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StopDatafeedAction.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StopDatafeedAction.java
index 0f66f35e729..7f9fae28d70 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StopDatafeedAction.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/action/StopDatafeedAction.java
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ import org.elasticsearch.discovery.MasterNotDiscoveredException;
 import org.elasticsearch.tasks.Task;
 import org.elasticsearch.threadpool.ThreadPool;
 import org.elasticsearch.transport.TransportService;
+import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.MachineLearning;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.MlMetadata;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.datafeed.DatafeedConfig;
 import org.elasticsearch.xpack.ml.datafeed.DatafeedState;
@@ -261,7 +262,7 @@ public class StopDatafeedAction
                                ActionFilters actionFilters, IndexNameExpressionResolver indexNameExpressionResolver,
                                ClusterService clusterService, PersistentTasksService persistentTasksService) {
             super(settings, StopDatafeedAction.NAME, threadPool, clusterService, transportService, actionFilters,
-                    indexNameExpressionResolver, Request::new, Response::new, ThreadPool.Names.MANAGEMENT);
+                    indexNameExpressionResolver, Request::new, Response::new, MachineLearning.UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME);
             this.persistentTasksService = persistentTasksService;
         }
 
diff --git a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/AutodetectProcessManager.java b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/AutodetectProcessManager.java
index eb3600a1c71..2cf7f417759 100644
--- a/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/AutodetectProcessManager.java
+++ b/plugin/src/main/java/org/elasticsearch/xpack/ml/job/process/autodetect/AutodetectProcessManager.java
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ public class AutodetectProcessManager extends AbstractComponent {
         Job job = jobManager.getJobOrThrowIfUnknown(jobId);
         jobProvider.getAutodetectParams(job, params -> {
             // We need to fork, otherwise we restore model state from a network thread (several GET api calls):
-            threadPool.executor(ThreadPool.Names.MANAGEMENT).execute(new AbstractRunnable() {
+            threadPool.executor(MachineLearning.UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME).execute(new AbstractRunnable() {
                 @Override
                 public void onFailure(Exception e) {
                     handler.accept(e);
@@ -272,7 +272,7 @@ public class AutodetectProcessManager extends AbstractComponent {
                 jobDataCountsPersister);
         ScoresUpdater scoresUpdater = new ScoresUpdater(job, jobProvider, new JobRenormalizedResultsPersister(settings, client),
                 normalizerFactory);
-        ExecutorService renormalizerExecutorService = threadPool.executor(MachineLearning.NORMALIZER_THREAD_POOL_NAME);
+        ExecutorService renormalizerExecutorService = threadPool.executor(MachineLearning.UTILITY_THREAD_POOL_NAME);
         Renormalizer renormalizer = new ShortCircuitingRenormalizer(jobId, scoresUpdater,
                 renormalizerExecutorService, job.getAnalysisConfig().getUsePerPartitionNormalization());