- Mahoney’s responsibilities include EO/IR payloads, RF sensors and autonomous systems
- He held VP and CTO roles at Leidos
- He served as engineering director at Northrop Grumman
Redwire has tapped William Mahoney, a former executive at Leidos and Northrop Grumman, as chief technology officer of its defense tech business.
The Jacksonville, Florida-based company said Thursday that Mahoney will draw on more than 25 years of engineering and technology leadership, including work in digital engineering, autonomy, airborne systems and artificial intelligence-enabled mission operations. He is tasked with leading the defense tech segment to develop capabilities that keep pace with shifting mission requirements, overseeing the development of electro-optical/infrared payloads, radio frequency antennas and sensors, and energy and autonomous systems.
Who Is William Mahoney?
Mahoney spent five years at Leidos, most recently as vice president and CTO for the kinetic effects and airborne & mission solutions portfolios, where he oversaw strategy, partnerships and independent research and development investment alignment.
Before joining Leidos, Mahoney served as engineering director at Northrop Grumman for more than seven years, supporting digital transformation for Department of Defense advanced programs, directing the MQ-4C Triton mission systems integrated product team and leading an organization of over 300 personnel responsible for mission avionics, payloads and communications for unmanned aircraft.
Mahoney was a senior program manager at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, where he led early development of the SkyGuardian medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial system and supported international Predator programs.
He also spent over five years at Sikorsky Aircraft in various program management roles. He was involved with the S-70B Seahawk, UH/HH-60M Black Hawk and the MH-60S Seahawk programs.
Earlier in his career, Mahoney served as a program manager at Goodrich ISR Systems and as a project lead and test engineer at Sikorsky. He also worked as a manufacturing engineer at Pratt & Whitney.
What Did CEO Peter Cannito Say About Mahoney’s Appointment?
Redwire Chairman and CEO Peter Cannito said Mahoney “has worked at the forefront of some of the most demanding technologies in defense.” Cannito added that the company will apply that experience to its defense tech portfolio to advance product development and expand the choices available to operators in the field.
What Is Redwire?
Redwire operates through two business segments: space and defense tech. In January, the company retired the Edge Autonomy brand and realigned its operations around the two units. Mike Gold leads the space segment, which covers spacecraft, large-scale space infrastructure and microgravity capabilities. The segment also includes SpaceMD, Redwire’s biotechnology venture. Steve Adlich, a former Edge Autonomy CEO, heads defense tech, which handles autonomous systems, optical sensors and radio frequency payloads for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions.
The realignment completed Redwire’s integration of Edge Autonomy, which it acquired in June 2025 through a $925 million cash-and-stock deal. The transaction expanded the company into uncrewed airborne systems and added manufacturing capacity in the U.S. and Europe.
Also in January, Redwire won a spot on the Missile Defense Agency’s Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense multiple-award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, which carries a $151 billion ceiling. If all options are exercised, the contract’s ordering period will run through December 2035.
