Prize Designer (First Principles Thinker)

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

Join XPRIZE to help create meaningful impact as we strive to empower humanity to achieve breakthroughs and architect a more equitable and abundant future for all.
Position Description

XPRIZE is seeking a First-Principles Prize Designer to lead the development of bold, high-impact global incentive competitions that accelerate innovation for the benefit of humanity. The role functions as a product manager for Prize Design projects, combining research, quantitative reasoning, design thinking, and communication to produce competition designs that target the breakthroughs behind an equitable and abundant future.

What sets this role apart is how the work starts. Faced with a new problem, you start by building your own understanding from the ground up before turning to the literature. You develop a working sense of the problem's scale and structure early, apply order-of-magnitude estimates and “whiteboard” the first-order math — enough to judge which incentives and metrics will meaningfully move the needle — then test those ideas against the world's leading experts. Every prize shares some common themes, and you’re energized by the thought of being flexible and adaptable enough to apply that mental model across five diverse areas of impact at XPRIZE. You work closely with XPRIZE domain leaders and technology staff to explain your framing of the problem, refine the implications of your findings, and in doing so, create the next great XPRIZE.

From a technical perspective, the ideal candidate thinks like a scientist and communicates like a generalist. You are able to build a credible working model of an unfamiliar problem quickly, and know when to go deeper. This allows you to move (for example) from designing a prize around the next breakthrough in fusion energy, to the effects of AI on society, to biotech for spaceflight, all in the same year.

The First-Principles Prize Designer leads end-to-end design, from initial ideation through the XPRIZE Global Visioneering process, to delivery of the final design report. You steward every phase: defining the problem, choosing the most effective prize direction, setting competition criteria, establishing phases and milestones, and building budgets across the full lifecycle of a prize. You ensure that each concept is well-researched, feasible, fundable, and positioned to win funding from a future sponsor. You report to the Prize Design Director and work within structured, accelerated timelines alongside a Project Manager, Domain Leads, Advancement, and cross-functional partners in finance, marketing, and operations. The role also involves regular engagement with sponsors and subject matter experts to keep technical rigor and strategic impact aligned.

Prize Designers also steward XPRIZE's design methodology, refining internal processes, capturing lessons learned, and representing the approach through thought leadership, workshops, and publications. Beyond individual projects, they contribute to organization-wide efforts such as Global Visioneering and other ideation that surfaces future XPRIZE opportunities.
Responsibilities

- Lead the end-to-end design an