Technical Prize Director, Energy Efficient AI

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 Technology + 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

The XPRIZE Foundation is seeking a leader for the Energy Efficient AI Prize, an ambitious upcoming global competition designed to accelerate breakthroughs in dramatically reducing the energy intensity and carbon footprint of artificial intelligence infrastructure and computation.

As AI scales to solve humanity's greatest challenges, its underlying infrastructure is driving an unsustainable exponential curve in global power demand. Data center energy needs could consume a significant portion of globally generated electricity within the coming decades if current trends continue. The goal of this prize is to decouple the advancement of AI from massive carbon footprints and grid-destabilizing power consumption.

The Energy Efficient AI XPRIZE is a 12-15 month global competition designed to demonstrate a 10x reduction in the energy consumption required for AI inference (i.e., "Less watts per correct thought"). Another way to look at this goal is 10x greater "cognitive efficiency" per unit power. The Prize is method agnostic; it aims to catalyze innovations across AI model efficiency, compute optimization, cooling systems, hardware acceleration, data center architecture, software optimization, energy-aware training and inference, and other transformative approaches. Claims of 10X or greater energy-efficiency will be measured against a baseline that represents today's state-of-the-art methods, with a 500M-1B parameter open-source model and commercial-off-the-shelf hardware.

The Technical Prize Director, reporting to the Domain Lead, is a deep subject matter expert in AI infrastructure, model deployment and testing, and is responsible for the overall operations and management of the Prize competition, including coordination of operations, team relations, marketing, contract negotiations, partnerships, technical validation, and budget oversight.

This individual will be responsible for all aspects of prize operations, ensuring that the competitions rigorous scientific metrics are flawlessly executed. They will serve as the primary architect of the competitions operational lifecycle, managing a complex ecosystem of tech giants, benchmarking consortiums, data science platforms, and global competitors. They must also be able to clearly communicate highly technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, executives, sponsors, media, and the public, while serving as a respected and credible representative of the Prize within the global AI, energy and technology communities.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and managerial direction to the Prize team.
• Execute the Prize vision, strategies, milestones, testing, and stated objectives.
• Proactively manage and ensure timely response to changing needs, requirements, issues, and direction while keeping all constituents informed.
• Oversee budget and authorization of expenditures within budgetary limits; develop and implement cost control measures and operational processes.
• Lead development of technical measurement, validation, and verification criteria to assess energy efficiency, computational performance, scalability, and real-world impact.
• Refine overall judging criteria and manage the Prize judging process, assisting judging panel members and technical advisors as needed, and maintaining impartial standards.
• Execute all technical aspects of the competition, ensuring the integrity of the "at-the-wall" power measurement protocol and unbiased measurements of competitor systems.
• Lead development of public/private leaderboards capable of transparently demonstrating competitor progress.
• Oversee the verification funnel, ensuring teams transition smoothly from "at-home" remote evaluations on public/private leaderboards to mandatory, in-person on-site audits conducted by external partners in a controlled setting.
• Partner with XPRIZE internal stakeholders to secure, retain, and effectively manage personnel, materials, and resources needed to execute the competition successfully.
• Identify and engage industry experts, researchers, consultants, and advisors to support the Prize on a temporary and/or contract basis.
• Monitor and report on Prize progress to XPRIZE leadership, advisory boards, sponsors, partners, and external stakeholders, ensuring all requirements are met.
• Organize, host, and participate in conferences, workshops, and events globally to promote the competition, recruit teams, and support judging and award activities.
• Ensure the competition is conducted in line with XPRIZE Foundation rules, policies, and operational processes, as well as specific Prize guidelines.
• Serve as a public-facing ambassador for the Prize through speaking engagements, media interviews, conferences, thought leadership, blogs, webinars, and industry outreach.
• Collaborate cross-functionally across departments and facilitate effective communication and alignment among internal and external stakeholders.
• Develop high-quality project plans that support reliable execution and operational excellence.

Qualifications

• Subject Matter Expert with demonstrated expertise across one or more of the following areas:

• Energy-efficient AI systems

• AI infrastructure and data center optimization

• High-performance computing

• Sustainable computing architectures

• AI model optimization and inference efficiency

• Cloud computing infrastructure

• Grid-aware or carbon-aware computing systems

• Data center energy systems and cooling technologies

• Renewable energy integration for computing infrastructure

• Advanced degree required (PhD preferred) in computer science, electrical engineering, AI/ML, energy systems, data science, physics, or another technical field highly relevant to the goals of this Prize.

• At least 7 years of experience in academic, research, startup, hyperscaler, or industry environments related to AI infrastructure, computing systems, hardware engineering or data center architecture. Familiarity with MLPerf, power measurement protocols, and large language model inference pipelines is highly desired.

• Demonstrated experience leading complex, multidisciplinary technology initiatives.

• Strong analytical, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills.

• Ability to thrive in fast-moving, ambiguous, and entrepreneurial environments with evolving priorities and timelines.

• Ability to deeply understand, refine and clearly explain complex technical protocols, including gRPC APIs, just-in-time (JIT) data delivery systems, and cryptographic dataset handling.

• Excellent public speaking and communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical concepts to broad and diverse audiences.

• Strong relationship-building skills with researchers, industry leaders, startups, sponsors, and global partners.

• Passion for leveraging technology and innovation to solve global sustainability challenges.

• Belief that a small group of motivated individuals can truly change the world for the better.

Why Work at XPRIZE:

In addition to working for a mission-driven company that catalyzes industries, pushes innovation forward, and is creating an abundant and equitable future, we offer the following benefits:

• Remote-first environment (must live and work in the United States)
• Quarterly company-paid All-Hands meetings in Los Angeles for frequent in-person collaboration
• Employee and dependent medical, dental, and vision options
• A 401(K) program with employer match
• Ample paid time off, including vacation, floating holidays, sick days, and company-paid holidays
• An Employee Assistance Program for confidential, professional support with personal, family, or other challenges
• Employee stipends/reimbursements for cell phone, internet, health & wellbeing, and learning & development
• Generous Paid Parental Leave for all employees welcoming a new child to their family
• One meeting-free block per week and four focus weeks per year to ensure uninterrupted time for strategic projects

The anticipated base salary for this position is $170,000 to $200,000 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.