Director, AI Build, the^delta prize

The/Nudge Institute; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,500,000; Full time

Job summary

the^delta Prize sits within Future Enterprises and leads the day-to-day product and delivery of an AI-first platform connecting youth and jobseekers with skills, apprenticeships and jobs in India’s MSME sector. This senior role builds and scales a disruptive AI-driven platform, collaborating with government systems, skilling networks and employers.

The candidate will own architecture decisions, navigate partner integrations, and drive a 10–12 million user ambition over three years, with a focus

Qualifications

• Built and shipped a significant technology product/platform, ideally from 0-1 through scale.
• Strong working fluency in AI/LLMs, agents, data, APIs and platform architecture — enough to make and challenge consequential technical decisions.
• Experience with AI-native products, DPI/DPGs, open/interoperable platforms or population-scale digital systems.
• The product and business judgement to decide what to build, buy, partner or integrate.
• The ability to assemble and lead strong engineering/AI partners without relying on a large in-house technology team.
• The seniority to work across technology companies, startups, government, employers and institutional partners.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of an AI-first platform for MSME readiness and career pathways.
• Coordinate with government systems, skilling networks and employers to scale the solution.
• Maintain and evolve platform architecture and product roadmap across stakeholders.

Skills

AI/LLMs

Platform architecture

Product leadership

Stakeholder management

Open/interoperable platforms

API design

Job description

the^delta Prize is a platform to draw talent, capital, and public attention towards the most pressing developmental problems in India. the^delta Prize aims to guide markets where they are needed the most, inducing population-scale solutions and innovations that have disproportionate impact on stagnant livelihood opportunities and ecosystems for underserved segments. We research, design and conduct tech-based scale-up competitions to discover and innovate disruptive solutions, and pull in capital to solve the most complex problems in India, faster.

This role sits within Future Enterprises, the^delta Prize's vertical dedicated to India's MSME sector, and leads day-to-day product and delivery of the AI platform within Samriddhi (AI for MSME prosperity). Samriddhi runs through two approaches: Grand Challenges, and an AI-first platform that connects youth and jobseekers in tier 3–4 cities to career pathways, skilling, apprenticeships and jobs, while helping MSMEs access job-ready talent.

Who are we solving for?

Youth and jobseekers in tier 3–4 cities, whose access to career guidance, skilling and jobs is limited by language, geography and the thin guidance available to them. The platform also serves MSMEs that find it difficult to articulate their hiring requirements and reach job-ready talent.

What are we solving for?

India's youth-to-work transition is fragmented across three points. Skilling remains supply-led while MSME demand for talent goes largely unmet. Career guidance for tier 3–4 youth is thin, rarely personalised, and rarely available in the youth's own language or in a voice-first format. The existing landscape of job and skilling platforms is fragmented, with several credible players serving overlapping segments through incompatible systems, which makes duplication the main design risk.

The platform is designed to address these three points together, and to run on top of existing government-led skilling councils, job and skilling networks and education-employment infrastructure instead of building parallel rails. The ambition is to reach 10–12 million young people over three years.

What are we looking for?

the^delta Prize is looking for a senior AI/product leader to build and lead the technology platform within a new, large-scale AI x MSME initiative in India.

The first major build is an AI-first workforce readiness and career pathways platform connecting young people to skills,

apprenticeships and jobs, with a particular focus on the talent needs of India’s MSME sector.

The ambition is to reach

10–12 million young people over three years, working with government systems, skilling and education networks,

employers and existing digital infrastructure.

This is a build role, not a program-management role.

We are looking for someone who has:

• Built and shipped a significant technology product/platform, ideally from 0-1 through scale
• Strong working fluency in AI/LLMs, agents, data, APIs and platform architecture — enough to make and challenge consequential technical decisions
• Experience with AI-native products, DPI/DPGs, open/interoperable platforms or population-scale digital systems
• The product and business judgement to decide what to build, buy, partner or integrate
• The ability to assemble and lead strong engineering/AI partners without relying on a large in-house technology team
• The seniority to work across technology companies, startups, government, employers and institutional partners

This could fit a startup founder/CTO/CPO, senior product or platform leader, or DPI/DPG builder looking to apply their experience to a consequential India-scale problem.

We aspire to be an inclusive and diverse organisation and encourage qualified individuals, irrespective of their religion, caste, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, or any other dimension of identity, to apply.