diff --git a/packages/backend/src/index.ts b/packages/backend/src/index.ts
index 9bf4f7d9cc..81d9c36d3f 100644
--- a/packages/backend/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/backend/src/index.ts
@@ -157,7 +157,9 @@ async function main() {
       const token =
         IdentityClient.getBearerToken(req.headers.authorization) ||
         req.cookies.token;
-      req.user = await identity.authenticate(token);
+
+      await authEnv.tokenManager.validateToken(token);
+
       if (!req.headers.authorization) {
         // Authorization header may be forwarded by plugin requests
         req.headers.authorization = `Bearer ${token}`;
diff --git a/packages/backend/src/plugins/search.ts b/packages/backend/src/plugins/search.ts
index 4cf9c10021..9a8db0f0f9 100644
--- a/packages/backend/src/plugins/search.ts
+++ b/packages/backend/src/plugins/search.ts
@@ -59,6 +59,7 @@ export default async function createPlugin({
   discovery,
   config,
   database,
+  tokenManager,
 }: PluginEnvironment) {
   // Initialize a connection to a search engine.
   const searchEngine = await createSearchEngine({ config, logger, database });
@@ -68,7 +69,10 @@ export default async function createPlugin({
   // particular collator gathers entities from the software catalog.
   indexBuilder.addCollator({
     defaultRefreshIntervalSeconds: 600,
-    collator: DefaultCatalogCollator.fromConfig(config, { discovery }),
+    collator: DefaultCatalogCollator.fromConfig(config, {
+      discovery,
+      tokenManager,
+    }),
   });
 
   indexBuilder.addCollator({
@@ -76,6 +80,7 @@ export default async function createPlugin({
     collator: DefaultTechDocsCollator.fromConfig(config, {
       discovery,
       logger,
+      tokenManager,
     }),
   });
 
diff --git a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/search/DefaultCatalogCollator.ts b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/search/DefaultCatalogCollator.ts
index a28a7645c4..36ba59ad2e 100644
--- a/plugins/catalog-backend/src/search/DefaultCatalogCollator.ts
+++ b/plugins/catalog-backend/src/search/DefaultCatalogCollator.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
-import { PluginEndpointDiscovery } from '@backstage/backend-common';
+import {
+  PluginEndpointDiscovery,
+  TokenManager,
+} from '@backstage/backend-common';
 import { Entity } from '@backstage/catalog-model';
 import { IndexableDocument, DocumentCollator } from '@backstage/search-common';
 import { Config } from '@backstage/config';
@@ -38,11 +41,13 @@ export class DefaultCatalogCollator implements DocumentCollator {
   protected filter?: CatalogEntitiesRequest['filter'];
   protected readonly catalogClient: CatalogApi;
   public readonly type: string = 'software-catalog';
+  protected tokenManager: TokenManager;
 
   static fromConfig(
     _config: Config,
     options: {
       discovery: PluginEndpointDiscovery;
+      tokenManager: TokenManager;
       filter?: CatalogEntitiesRequest['filter'];
     },
   ) {
@@ -56,8 +61,10 @@ export class DefaultCatalogCollator implements DocumentCollator {
     locationTemplate,
     filter,
     catalogClient,
+    tokenManager,
   }: {
     discovery: PluginEndpointDiscovery;
+    tokenManager: TokenManager;
     locationTemplate?: string;
     filter?: CatalogEntitiesRequest['filter'];
     catalogClient?: CatalogApi;
@@ -68,6 +75,7 @@ export class DefaultCatalogCollator implements DocumentCollator {
     this.filter = filter;
     this.catalogClient =
       catalogClient || new CatalogClient({ discoveryApi: discovery });
+    this.tokenManager = tokenManager;
   }
 
   protected applyArgsToFormat(
@@ -82,9 +90,13 @@ export class DefaultCatalogCollator implements DocumentCollator {
   }
 
   async execute() {
-    const response = await this.catalogClient.getEntities({
-      filter: this.filter,
-    });
+    const { token } = await this.tokenManager.getServerToken();
+    const response = await this.catalogClient.getEntities(
+      {
+        filter: this.filter,
+      },
+      { token },
+    );
     return response.items.map((entity: Entity): CatalogEntityDocument => {
       return {
         title: entity.metadata.title ?? entity.metadata.name,
diff --git a/plugins/techdocs-backend/src/search/DefaultTechDocsCollator.ts b/plugins/techdocs-backend/src/search/DefaultTechDocsCollator.ts
index 121ef6e46d..094fb8b049 100644
--- a/plugins/techdocs-backend/src/search/DefaultTechDocsCollator.ts
+++ b/plugins/techdocs-backend/src/search/DefaultTechDocsCollator.ts
@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
-import { PluginEndpointDiscovery } from '@backstage/backend-common';
+import {
+  PluginEndpointDiscovery,
+  TokenManager,
+} from '@backstage/backend-common';
 import { Entity, RELATION_OWNED_BY } from '@backstage/catalog-model';
 import { DocumentCollator } from '@backstage/search-common';
 import fetch from 'cross-fetch';
@@ -34,6 +37,7 @@ interface MkSearchIndexDoc {
 export type TechDocsCollatorOptions = {
   discovery: PluginEndpointDiscovery;
   logger: Logger;
+  tokenManager: TokenManager;
   locationTemplate?: string;
   catalogClient?: CatalogApi;
   parallelismLimit?: number;
@@ -51,6 +55,7 @@ export class DefaultTechDocsCollator implements DocumentCollator {
   protected locationTemplate: string;
   private readonly logger: Logger;
   private readonly catalogClient: CatalogApi;
+  private readonly tokenManager: TokenManager;
   private readonly parallelismLimit: number;
   private readonly legacyPathCasing: boolean;
   public readonly type: string = 'techdocs';
@@ -63,6 +68,7 @@ export class DefaultTechDocsCollator implements DocumentCollator {
     locationTemplate,
     logger,
     catalogClient,
+    tokenManager,
     parallelismLimit = 10,
     legacyPathCasing = false,
   }: TechDocsCollatorOptions) {
@@ -74,6 +80,7 @@ export class DefaultTechDocsCollator implements DocumentCollator {
       catalogClient || new CatalogClient({ discoveryApi: discovery });
     this.parallelismLimit = parallelismLimit;
     this.legacyPathCasing = legacyPathCasing;
+    this.tokenManager = tokenManager;
   }
 
   static fromConfig(config: Config, options: TechDocsCollatorOptions) {
@@ -87,19 +94,23 @@ export class DefaultTechDocsCollator implements DocumentCollator {
   async execute() {
     const limit = pLimit(this.parallelismLimit);
     const techDocsBaseUrl = await this.discovery.getBaseUrl('techdocs');
-    const entities = await this.catalogClient.getEntities({
-      fields: [
-        'kind',
-        'namespace',
-        'metadata.annotations',
-        'metadata.name',
-        'metadata.title',
-        'metadata.namespace',
-        'spec.type',
-        'spec.lifecycle',
-        'relations',
-      ],
-    });
+    const { token } = await this.tokenManager.getServerToken();
+    const entities = await this.catalogClient.getEntities(
+      {
+        fields: [
+          'kind',
+          'namespace',
+          'metadata.annotations',
+          'metadata.name',
+          'metadata.title',
+          'metadata.namespace',
+          'spec.type',
+          'spec.lifecycle',
+          'relations',
+        ],
+      },
+      { token },
+    );
     const docPromises = entities.items
       .filter(it => it.metadata?.annotations?.['backstage.io/techdocs-ref'])
       .map((entity: Entity) =>