XPRIZE Overview 

XPRIZE is an established global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. As a 501(c)3, our unique model democratizes innovation by incentivizing crowd-sourced, scientifically viable solutions to create a more equitable and abundant future for all.  Since our founding in 1994, we’ve awarded over $500M in prize purses, inspired thousands of global innovators, and collaborated with the most forward-thinking changemakers of our time. We operate across 5 areas of impact, including:

• Climate, Energy & Nature
• Food, Water & Waste 
• Deep Tech & Exploration 
• Learning & Society 
• Health 

Join XPRIZE to help empower humanity to achieve breakthroughs and architect a more equitable and abundant future for all.

Position Description 

The Director of Prize Design is an XPRIZE leadership role responsible for managing and guiding the Prize Design team of 4-5 people producing designs for global, large-scale incentive competitions. The Prize Design team functions as a centralized resource for the organization, designing prizes across all 5 XPRIZE domain areas. 

Operating with strategic vision and rigorous curation skills, the Director functions as an elite technological scout and architect. The Director is responsible for ensuring the development of bold, innovative, and impactful prize designs that clearly push beyond incremental progress. Using proven ideation frameworks, they will curate concepts by evaluating the state-of-the-art, and articulate the fundamental limitations of current approaches. The Director will also work in partnership with the XPRIZE Advancement Team to clearly elucidate the technology derivation and rigor behind potential competitions to a variety of potential and current prize sponsors. 

The Prize Design Director will review designs produced by team members, make recommendations for change, and author/tailor critical sections of the designs to ensure they target the “white space” between technological disciplines where true paradigm shifts occur. Additionally, the Director will facilitate the generation of prize concepts in the XPRIZE Global Visioneering process. These concepts are the precursor to prize design and help to elucidate potential high impact competitions.   

The Director oversees the execution of prize design projects, manages and mentors prize design staff, and ensures that design processes consistently produce world-class competitions aligned with XPRIZE’s mission. This role works closely with Domain Leads, Advancement, Operations, Marketing and other internal partners, while also representing the prize design team externally with sponsors, subject matter experts, and innovation stakeholders.

The successful candidate will combine strong design expertise with technology leadership, team management, and the strategic thinking capabilities necessary to guide and curate radical breakthroughs.

Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Management

• Lead, manage, and mentor a team of prize designers in their professional growth, training them to think critically, challenge assumptions, and act as autonomous visionaries across competition design for all 5 XPRIZE domains. 
• Oversee staffing and resource allocation across multiple concurrent prize design projects.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and innovative team culture that is comfortable navigating deep ambiguity, process updates, and technical complexity.
• Ensure the delivery of timely prize designs under aggressive and competing schedule, technical rigor and complexity constraints. 
• Able to build and access diverse technical networks to recruit the next-generation of Prize Designers.

Strategic Oversight

• Contribute to the vision and strategy of prize design within XPRIZE, ensuring that competitions are bold, achievable, and impactful.
• Ensure consistency, quality, technical rigor and breakthrough-level innovation across all prize design projects.
• Capture lessons learned and update prize design methodologies to keep XPRIZE at the forefront of incentive competition design and innovation theory.
• Represent the prize design function in cross-departmental and organizational planning discussions.
• Be the primary point of contact to XPRIZE Domain Leads (EVPs) on the planning, updating and delivery of prize ideas, concepts, sketches and designs. 

Prize Design Execution

• Guide new team members through research, design-thinking, expert engagement, and competition architecture.
• Ensure the delivery of prize designs on schedule and budget. 
• Continuously provide broad and detailed technical and structural feedback to prize designers, and ensure the integration of other XPRIZE stakeholder feedback during the design process.
• Oversee the development of competition criteria, phases, milestones, and budget models.
• Review and provide feedback on deliverables to ensure clarity, rigor, and alignment with organizational standards.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of innovation incentives, prizes, and adjacent design practices from peer organizations.
• Act as the single accountable point of contact for the on-budget execution and active financial stewardship of funded prize designs.  

External Engagement

• Ensures clear communication and alignment throughout the design process with sponsors.
• Establish and maintain sufficient technical depth on the subject matter of all prize designs, to represent the technical content of that design as a partner to XPRIZE Advancement representatives on external engagements. 
• Embody superior executive-level technical communication skills: translate complex technological paradigms into compelling, executive-level narratives; drive strategic alignment with C-suite stakeholders, policymakers, and visionary philanthropists. 
• Build and maintain high-leverage relationships with subject matter experts, industry leaders, advisors, and external stakeholders.
• For a given subject matter area, be able to rapidly identify world-class thought leadership, and create partnerships to leverage that expertise in XPRIZE designs.
• Represent prize design and XPRIZE design methodology in thought leadership initiatives, workshops, and events.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of innovation incentives, prizes, and adjacent design practices from peer organizations.

Qualifications 

• Masters degree required; PhD degree in an analytical, technical or scientific field preferred.
• 8–10 years of progressive experience in advanced research and development (R&D) program management, innovation design, deep-tech Venture Capital, product management, or similar fields.
• Prior management or team leadership experience required. A history of leading high-performing, intellectual teams is strongly preferred. 
• Proven track record designing and/or managing complex projects that combine analytical research, creative problem-solving, and stakeholder engagement.
• Strong understanding of design thinking, structured ideation vetting, and innovation frameworks.
• Experience managing budgets, client or sponsor relationships, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; able to translate highly complex, fringe-science concepts into compelling narratives for executives, sponsors, and the general public.
• Excellent organizational and prioritization skills; able to manage multiple projects under deadlines.
• Visionary and strategic thinker with the ability to balance big-picture goals and day-to-day execution.
• Inspirational leader and mentor who fosters growth, collaboration, and accountability.
• Confident communicator and facilitator, skilled at building trust and managing stakeholder relationships.
• Creative, flexible, and adaptable in a dynamic, fast-paced environment where ambiguity is the norm.
• Strong sense of ownership, rigor, and attention to detail.
• Passion for XPRIZE’s mission to use innovation and incentives to solve the world’s greatest challenges.

Competencies required for this role:

• Action Oriented 
• Manages Ambiguity 
• Collaborates internally and externally 
• Communicates effectively and professionally 
• Manages Complexity 
• Directs Work 
• Global Perspective 
• Nimble Learning 
• Plans and Aligns 
• Builds Networks (Especially within unconventional, academic, and deep-tech ecosystems). 
• Drives Results 
• Situational Adaptability 
• Builds Effective Teams 
• Drives Vision and Purpose

The anticipated base salary for this position is $140,000 to $165,000 and may also qualify for an annual incentive. This role is eligible for our extensive benefits package and generous paid time off including vacation, sick, and holidays. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of factors including the qualifications of the individual applicant, years of relevant experience for the role, level of education attained, and certifications and/or other licenses held. XPRIZE is a remote-first environment.

The XPRIZE FOUNDATION is an equal opportunity employer and does not unlawfully discriminate in employment. Equal access to employment, services, and programs is available to all persons. Those applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application and/or interview process should notify a representative of the organization. 

Please note: Though submitting a resume to the XPRIZE FOUNDATION implies that you are interested in a position(s), it does not imply that you are an applicant. You are not considered an applicant until you have been contacted directly by a Talent Acquisitions representative requesting that you begin the designated application process, which may involve phone and/or in-person interview(s), job-related testing, and background checks.