AI-Native Software Engineer - Consultant

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 development practices, translating specifications into AI-assisted implementation, and document this workflow so it’s reusable by the internal team after the engagement ends.
• Evaluate and refine AI-generated code for correctness, security, and architectural fit.
• Transfer knowledge to XPRIZE’s internal engineers — including training on AI-assisted and spec-driven development methods used on this proj…