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 launched $519 million in prize competitions that are driving more than $31 billion in social and economic impact — a 60x return on philanthropic investment. These competitions not only de-risk early-stage breakthrough ideas but also mobilize capital, talent, and momentum to accelerate solutions from concept to real-world scale.
We operate across 5 areas of impact, including:
Deep Tech + Exploration
Energy + Climate + Nature
Food + Water + Waste
Health
Learning + Society
Project Description
XPRIZE is seeking an experienced AI-Native Software Engineer to support the build of our new Prize Execution Platform — a unified system replacing our current, fragmented set of tools and expanding significantly on what they do today. The platform will manage the full lifecycle of an XPRIZE competition in a single ecosystem connecting four core user groups:
XPRIZE staff , who design and configure competitions, manage milestones and timelines, oversee submission intake, coordinate judging, and track prize disbursement.
Competitors , who register teams, submit applications and milestone deliverables, track their progress through the competition lifecycle, and receive AI-assisted matchmaking with relevant mentors.
Judges , who review and score submissions — supported by AI-assisted scoring and automated submission review tools that surface relevant context and flag issues before human review.
Alumni , who stay connected to the XPRIZE ecosystem post-competition through community and continued-engagement features.
AI is embedded directly into the product, not just the development process. Core AI-powered capabilities include:
AI-assisted judging and scoring to support judges with consistent, efficient evaluation.
Automated submission review to pre-screen and triage incoming applications and deliverables.
Competitor-mentor matchmaking to connect competing teams with relevant subject-matter mentors.
An applicant-facing chatbot to answer questions and guide competitors through the application and submission process.
This is a net-new platform, not a like-for-like migration — it will consolidate and significantly extend the capabilities of XPRIZE's current tooling. The engagement will be built using spec-driven and AI-assisted development practices on a .NET, Angular/React, and Python stack.
The ideal consultant can move quickly within a defined scope, work independently with minimal ramp-up, and deliver production-quality results on a set timeline — while also helping XPRIZE's internal engineering team build lasting capability in AI-assisted and spec-driven development practices.
Scope of Work:
Design, develop, and deliver features and modules across the Prize Execution Platform, including competition management, submission intake, judging/scoring, competitor and mentor matchmaking, and applicant-facing AI tools within the defined project scope, using .NET, Angular/React, and Python as needed.
Collaborate with the internal product and engineering team to confirm requirements, milestones, and acceptance criteria for the engagement.
Deliver clean, maintainable, and tested code that meets the quality, security, and testing criteria defined in the Statement of Work and the technical guidelines provided at kickoff.
Submit work product for XPRIZE review at agreed milestones, and join technical planning and review sessions as needed to confirm requirements and acceptance criteria.
Use AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or similar) as the primary development workflow — for scaffolding, refactoring, test generation, debugging, and documentation.
Apply AI-first, spec-driven…