About XPRIZE

XPRIZE competitions change the world for the better by accelerating innovation life cycles, catalyzing markets, and energizing stakeholders.  

The XPRIZE Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to inspiring and incentivizing breakthroughs to the most critical challenges facing humanity. Since its beginning in 1994, the Foundation has been building and continues to build a vision of hope and abundance for humanity’s future by harnessing the power of innovators, technology, and resources.  

Through incentive prize competitions, XPRIZE enables people to create bold and transformative solutions that are scalable and drive real impact. XPRIZE competitions positively impact both the marketplace and humanity by addressing the market failures that have prevented significant breakthroughs across multiple sectors.  

An XPRIZE… 

sets an audacious but achievable goal that aims to overcome challenges deemed impossible. It tackles some of humanity's most pressing issues by redefining what is achievable and pushing the boundaries of human potential.  

defines and addresses a clear problem through extensive research, a design sprint, and a competition that catalyzes the development of the next breakthroughs to put humanity on the path toward a preferred future state for all. The desired outcome from an XPRIZE is clear and measurable, and the rules of the competition are transparent and easily understood.  

democratizes innovation by encouraging expert and nonexpert participation and multidisciplinary collaboration.  

catalyzes markets and revitalizes stagnant industries by increasing awareness of market failures and accelerating innovations to address them.  

is highly leveraged, with competing teams attracting and mobilizing investment capital, partner support, and new members in pursuit of the prize. Philanthropic dollars are thus magnified in support of a solution.  

Our first XPRIZE, the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE for private spaceflight, spurred an industry and created exponential breakthroughs. Since then we have provided over $140 million in incentives through these competitions. Each prize has created an industry-changing technology that brings us closer to a better, safer, more sustainable world.  

The use of incentive competitions, or prizes, to accelerate innovation goes back over 300 years, to when the British Admiralty launched the Longitude Prize in 1714 to find a better way to navigate our seas. In the years since, several well-known innovations have resulted from incentive competitions, including canning as a form of food preservation (a competition launched by Napoleon in 1795), modern plastics (the Billiard Ball Prize, 1863) and commercial aviation (the Orteig Prize, 1919).  

This is more than a job to us. When you work at XPRIZE, you’re making a positive impact on some of the biggest challenges facing our world. Whether you’re working in prize design or development, marketing and communications, stakeholder relations, business operations or any other department, you’re playing a critical role in turning the impossible into the possible.

Role Summary

The Technical Lead will support the Rainforest XPRIZE in all areas relating to the day-to-day scientific and technical operations of the competition. The Technical Lead will work as part of the Rainforest XPRIZE team and support the Prize Executive Lead in managing day to day competition operations including handling the processing of technical submission documents, executing field tests and technology validation in the competition semifinals and finals, and work with external partners to oversee the management of testing operations, and ensure all permits are in place. The Technical Lead will also manage updates and publication of the Rules and Regulations and address technical and operational questions from the competing teams. This position will also assume primary responsibility for: managing and supporting the work of key external contractors; overseeing the establishment and operations of testing, which includes extensive field test operations within a rainforest; ensuring smooth and secure data management; building templates and tools to evaluate team performance and competition scores, including assisting in the establishment of protocols for judging and scoring; and supporting the external judging panel as needed in their deliberations and evaluation of team performance.

Responsibilities

• Reporting to the Executive Lead, the Technical Lead uses subject matter expertise to manage the operations of large technical programs that involve testing and evaluation in either a laboratory environment, under controlled real-world conditions, and/or operation’s field;
• Develop and refine competition technical requirements in collaboration with subject matter experts and the Executive Lead;
• Spearheads the writing of key competition documents including the competition guidelines, rules and regulations, and qualifying submission;
• Facilitates both internal and external technical workshops and presentations;
• Responsible for communicating technical requirements to teams and responding to team technical inquiries;
• Remains informed and knowledgeable with the wide range of technologies being used by competing teams as well as technological development in the field;
• Researches and proposes field test sites with budget, internal and external factors in mind;
• Conducts field test location scouting with Executive Lead;
• Manages relationships with technical partners and advisors used during field testing;
• Manage the recruitment process of Judges as well as the ongoing work of the judging panel;
• Uses subject matter expertise to design technical scoring mechanisms for judges;
• Responsible for documenting all testing validation paperwork;
• Manage and coordinate with consulting experts when necessary (i.e. field test validation);
• Represent the prize and XPRIZE Foundation at external events (e.g. technical conferences, panels, etc.) as the subject matter expert;
• Support thought leadership pieces for the prize;
• Strategize with Operations Team in identifying and recruiting relevant partners into the competition;
• Develop and manage technical operations project planning in conjunction with the Operations team;
• Support risk mitigation planning.
• Travel for this role is expected to be 40%.

 Qualifications

• MSc, MEng or other advanced degree plus relevant experience;
• Preferably in natural resources management, forestry, environmental or conservation management, bioregional planning, development studies, social sciences, environmental data science, or other relevant field;
• Ten years of experience implementing and managing complex, large-scale conservation, natural resource management, biodiversity/species protection projects;
• Significant experience in some of the following areas:
• Biodiversity Conservation
• Tropical Forest Conservation
• Environmental Sustainability
• Conservation Technologies
• Protected Areas Management
• Environmental Engineering
• International Development
• Data Management
• Robotics, VR/AR, AI/ML;
• Demonstrated effectiveness leading and managing teams that are able to adapt to dynamic operating conditions to achieve project results;
• Experience implementing sustainable landscapes activities in a tropical forest context;
• Understanding of the technical challenges of the multiple disciplines applicable to this competition;
• Familiarity with international processes around forest and biodiversity policy, including the UN Convention on Biological Diversity;
• Familiarity with payment for ecosystems services models;
• Strong technical writing and professional verbal communication skills;
• Experience in working collaboratively with a wide variety of stakeholders from academia to government agencies and the private sector;
• Experience with written and verbal communications that may be technical in nature;
• Extensive experience with project or program management.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including relationship building and collaboration, within a diverse, cross-functional team;
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, exposure to large-scale systems;
• Self-starter who takes the initiative to start projects, work unsupervised, complete tasks independently, solve roadblocks, and address issues before they become problems;
• Exceptional organizational abilities; aggressive attention to detail and ability to multi-task with rigorous time management;
• Entrepreneurial attitude that can drive to success in resource constrained environments;
• Strong collaborator across team and organizational boundaries;
• Thinking creatively and calmly in fluid situations under intense schedules and deadlines;

 Come change the world with us.

XPRIZE Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to having a truly inclusive workforce. We do not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, political affiliation or on the basis of actual or perceived gender as expressed through dress, appearance, or behavior.