Open Seats · The studio team behind every engagement

The roles five years ahead. Not five years behind.

Five years ago, "meme engineer" was a joke. Now every consumer brand has one. The titles below are this decade's version · distinct enough that nobody else is hiring for them yet, real enough that the people doing the work are quietly compounding. This is who builds your partner engagement when you work with the firm. It is also who you should consider becoming.

Why these titles

Most agencies hire content writers, designers and developers. Those titles describe craft surfaces that existed in 2010. They are inadequate for the work AI search now demands · which is not writing for humans, not designing for browsers, not developing for screens. It is engineering for retrieval.

The titles below describe what the work actually is. Citation Engineer. Retrieval Copywriter. Schema Architect. Founder-Voice Editor. Each one will be a standard B2B role within five years. Right now, the firms that hire for them by name attract a specific kind of operator · one who reads the title and recognises the work, and is therefore already several months ahead of everyone else applying.

Ten partner engagements a year, firm-wide. Six seats on the studio team. The discipline that decides which partners we take also decides which operators join us.

← Back to e21designs

Two paths · both by application · both reviewed personally

The practice · and the residency.

Two doors into the studio. Open Seats · for senior operators ready to ship into a category-defining firm. The Foundry · for students at IIT, IIM, NID, NLS, IIIT and equivalent institutes building experience while they study. Both belong to the same studio team. Both shape the next decade of the AI economy from where it should be shaped.

Path one · for senior operators

Open Seats

Eight senior full-time seats and one rolling role. Citation Engineer, Retrieval Copywriter, Founder-Voice Editor, Schema Architect, Category Strategist, Viral Pattern Architect, Signal Pattern Analyst, Brand-in-the-Model Researcher. Senior-rate compensation. Direct mentorship from the founder. Real partner engagements from week one.

9 roles By application Reply within 7 days

See the seats →

Path two · for students building careers

The Foundry

A twelve-month residency for the next generation of operators · built from emerging markets, for the world. Build experience while you study. Four tracks. Four Foundry Fellows per year. Four hours every week of your residency goes to The Open Studio · so the work compounds in you and outward at the same time.

4 tracks While you study Reviewed by Dr. Avinaash

See The Foundry →

e21 · the operating philosophy

"Our responsibility is not only to build businesses, but to build people capable of building the future."
Dr. Avinaash Founder · e21designs

Open seats · 2026

Reviewed personally · Reply within 7 working days

Senior · Full-time · Engineering

Citation Engineer

What "Prompt Engineer" was in 2023, "Citation Engineer" is in 2026. You will write the retrieval probes, the schema generators, the Claude / GPT skill layers and the AI-crawler diagnostics the firm runs in production across partner engagements. The work is half engineering, half forensics · figuring out why a model returns the answer it does, then engineering the structural change that moves the answer. Mentored by Dr. Avinaash on the strategy layer, by Saravana on the technical layer.

Cohort 1–2 seats Compensation ₹18–32 L · senior rate Location Remote · IN-friendly · quarterly Chennai weeks

Apply →

Senior · Full-time · Editorial

Retrieval Copywriter

A copywriter, but for a reader that is not human. You will write the answer surfaces · homepage paragraphs, FAQ blocks, llms.txt drafts, manifesto sections, definition pages · that ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini lift verbatim when buyers prompt them. The discipline is the opposite of SEO copywriting: short sentences, named methodology, dated facts, citation-ready prose. If you have ever rewritten a paragraph eight times to make one fewer claim, you are the writer we are looking for.

Cohort 1 seat Compensation ₹14–22 L · senior rate Location Remote · async-first

Apply →

Senior · Full-time · Production

Founder-Voice Editor

Video editors compress hours of footage into minutes that move people. You will compress founder interviews, podcasts and internal videos into the transcript-indexed clips AI engines now read as authority signal. Short-form for LinkedIn. Long-form for YouTube. Podcast-derivative for Spotify. Each piece is engineered so the founder's own words appear inside the AI answer the next time a buyer asks the category question. Storytelling judgement matters more than software fluency.

Cohort 1 seat Compensation ₹16–26 L · senior rate Location Remote · monthly Chennai studio days

Apply →

Senior · Full-time · Engineering

Schema Architect

The structured-data layer is the floor under every citation. You will own JSON-LD, RDF, knowledge graphs, sitemap engineering, llms.txt deployment and AI-crawler diagnostics across every partner engagement. Five-plus years of structured-data work required. The interview is a real working session · three hours, paid, no whiteboarding theatre. You will read e21designs's own schema graph (38 entity types) before the first call and tell us what's missing.

Seats 1 Compensation ₹32–48 L + equity Location Remote · IN-default

Apply →

Senior · Full-time · Partner-facing

Category Strategist · GEO

Partner-facing strategist who owns two to four engagements end-to-end · diagnostic, scope, evidence architecture, monthly board-facing reporting. You have led B2B strategy before, you can defend a thesis in front of a CMO, you are calm with founders. The role is fully partner-revenue-aligned. Four to seven years of strategy or consulting tenure preferred; agency tenure is not required and often a disadvantage.

Seats 1 Compensation ₹40–65 L + revenue share Location Remote · IN/UAE timezones

Apply →

Senior · Full-time · Distribution

Viral Pattern Architect

What "Social Media Manager" was in 2018, "Viral Pattern Architect" is in 2026. Each artifact you ship · LinkedIn carousels, founder reels, long-form video chapters, X threads, podcast-derivative clips · is engineered for two readers at once: the human who reshares it and the model that lifts it into a citation six weeks later. You think in patterns, not posts. You can show three things you made that compounded into millions of impressions without paid lift. Mentored by Sunil Kumar on the design layer, by Dr. Avinaash on the category layer.

Cohort 1 seat Compensation ₹16–28 L · senior rate Location Remote · async-first · monthly Chennai studio days

Apply →

Senior · Full-time · Intelligence

Signal Pattern Analyst

The role nobody is hiring for yet, but every serious firm will be hiring for by 2028. You will run live retrieval telemetry across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot · week over week · for every partner engagement. You will identify the prompts where partner brands begin to appear inside model answers, the prompts where competitors are gaining ground, and the structural reasons behind the shifts. Half scientist, half forensic analyst. If you have ever read a model's output and intuited why it returned exactly that answer, you already do this work. Mentored by Saravana on the technical stack, by Dr. Avinaash on the category interpretation.

Cohort 1 seat Compensation ₹20–34 L · senior rate Location Remote · IN/UAE timezones

Apply →

Rolling · No closing date

Brand-in-the-Model Researcher

A catch-all role for the rare specialist whose work doesn't fit a category yet. Prompt linguist. Citation cartographer. Knowledge-graph analyst. Retrieval-quality scientist. Entity-reconciliation specialist. Founder-authority producer. If one of those titles sounds like what you do · or you have invented a ninth · write to us. One paragraph on what you do. One paragraph on why it would compound here. One link to work that demonstrates it. We read every one.

Cadence Rolling · reviewed monthly Compensation Scoped to role · senior-rate floor

Apply →

e21 · twenty-twenty-six

Build experience while you study

The Foundry.

A residency where operators are forged · built from emerging markets, for the world.

If you are in your third year, your fourth year, your final semester, or your first six months out · at an IIT, IIM, NID, NLS, IIIT, or any institute where curiosity outpaces the syllabus · this is the room to spend the next twelve months in. Built around your academic calendar. Remote-first, async-paced, with monthly Chennai studio days. You ship into a real partner engagement in week one. You publish under your own name by month six. You graduate with citations in production AI engines · while your batch is still sending CVs. Reviewed personally by Dr. Avinaash. Four hours every week of your residency goes to The Open Studio · the firm's civic half · so what you build inside the firm builds back into the institutions that built you. The word "Foundry" exists because there is no other word for a place that forges operators and gives them back to the country at the same time.

Format

While you study

Duration

12 months

Cohort size

4 Foundry Fellows

Reviewed by

Dr. Avinaash, personally

Pathway

Full-time offer at conclusion

Public service

4 hrs a week

Applications

Open · rolling

The category we are building from

Generative Engine Optimization was not built in Palo Alto. The new operating layer of the AI economy is being authored from Chennai, Bengaluru, Dubai and Singapore by operators serving partners across six countries. The Foundry exists so the next generation of this category is built from where it should be built · emerging markets, by emerging-market talent, for global firms competing on the new playing field. You graduate as a global operator with an Indian-built craft. That is the long-tail bet.

Why this isn't consulting (and isn't a Series A)

The McKinsey analyst learns presentation craft and partner deference. The Series-A hire is talent arbitrage · the founder needs hands. The Foundry is structured around your craft, not their staffing gap. You learn to engineer how an AI engine cites a brand · a skill that compounds for thirty years inside the new industrial reorganisation. You ship work into real partner engagements. You publish under your byline by month nine. You leave with citations in production AI engines, not a Notion page of responsibilities.

The half that compounds outward

Four hours every week of your residency go to The Open Studio · the firm's civic commitments · non-profits, cause-led founders, Sunday open hours for anyone navigating AI. This is not "CSR" grafted onto the programme. It is the programme. What compounds in you compounds back · into the institutions, communities and countries the AI economy is leaving behind. The Foundry Fellow graduates as an operator who can serve a Fortune-500 CMO on Tuesday and a free-school-network founder on Sunday · without changing register.

Three Foundry tracks

Pick the track that fits your craft · or propose a fourth

Each Foundry Fellow is paired with one senior team member · Dr. Avinaash, Sunil Kumar, Saravana, or Satish · and ships into a live partner engagement by the end of the second week. No "training tracks". No coffee runs. No simulated assignments. The work compounds into a portfolio that nobody else your age has. This is not the graduate programme you have been pitched before.

Apprentice · 12-month residency · Engineering

Citation Engineering Apprentice

You will work alongside the Citation Engineer and Schema Architect on live partner engagements · running retrieval probes against ChatGPT and Claude, drafting JSON-LD entity graphs, deploying llms.txt files for partner sites. By month three you are owning your own diagnostic; by month six you have a portfolio of three engagements no other apprentice in the country has. Background: any technical discipline (computer science, information systems, engineering, linguistics). What we look for: curiosity about how models decide what to retrieve. Mentored by Saravana.

Cohort 1 seat · structured 12-month residency Format Remote · async-first · monthly Chennai cohort days Pathway High-performing apprentices receive full-time offers

Apply →

Apprentice · 12-month residency · Editorial

Editorial Apprentice · Reading Room

You will draft and ship long-form briefings for the e21designs Reading Room under Dr. Avinaash's byline first, then under your own once your name has a citation history. By month six your published work has been quoted by ChatGPT in production. The discipline is the opposite of every "content internship" you've seen · every paragraph must be liftable verbatim by AI engines; every claim must be defended; every dated fact verified. Background: any humanities discipline with a strong writing portfolio. Mentored by Dr. Avinaash.

Cohort 1 seat · structured 12-month residency Format Remote · async-first · weekly editorial reviews Pathway Full-time Retrieval Copywriter pipeline

Apply →

Apprentice · 12-month residency · Production

Founder-Voice & Motion Apprentice

You will assist the Founder-Voice Editor and Viral Pattern Architect on live partner engagements · cutting podcast clips, designing LinkedIn carousels, drafting reel storyboards engineered for AI-era reshare. You will learn the discipline of making founder thinking liftable inside both human feeds and model citations. Background: motion design, video editing, social-native storytelling. Software fluency matters less than storytelling instinct. Mentored by Satish on the visual layer, by Sunil Kumar on the systems layer.

Cohort 1 seat · structured 12-month residency Format Hybrid · monthly Chennai studio weeks Pathway Founder-Voice Editor or Viral Pattern Architect pipeline

Apply →

Open · Propose your own track · By application

Open Application

You are in your final or penultimate year at an IIT, IIM, NID, NLS, IIIT or equivalent. Your craft does not fit cleanly into Engineering, Editorial or Production · or it spans several. Write to us anyway. In one paragraph: who you are, what you are unusually good at, and why The Foundry is the room you should spend twelve months in. We read every application personally. Most of the firm's best operators arrived through a paragraph that surprised us.

Cohort 1 seat · self-defined track Format Designed with you in week one What to send One paragraph. One link.

Apply →

e21 · the civic half

The Open Studio.

Some of what we do is not billed. Never has been. The civic half of e21designs · Sunday Sessions, The Express Pass, The Open Office, The Lectern, The Recognition Practice · is now its own room. The commitments, delivered by the same senior operators who run partner engagements. The structure through which the firm's work returns to the country it earned in.

See The Open Studio →

Why these are the people building your engagement

A studio where the title is the work. Not a job description.

Real partner work, day one

No "training tracks" before the real work begins. Every team member joins an active partner engagement in week one. The names on the work are NDA-protected; the skill compound is not. For clients, this means the operator answering your Slack on day three is the same one who reviewed the diagnostic with the founder.

ii.

Founder-mentored, by design

Every studio seat sits one chair away from Dr. Avinaash. There is no junior-routing tier, no account-management layer, no "delivery team" you never meet. For clients: the person engineering your citation graph reports to the founder, not to a project manager.

iii.

Senior-rate floor

Every role on this page · including the apprentice tracks where they exist · is compensated at senior market rates. For clients: this matters because operators in this category go where the work is serious. Below-market compensation produces below-market thinking.

iv.

Published thinking, attributed

Team members publish under their own names · in the firm's Reading Room, on LinkedIn, on guest essays. For clients: the operator you hire is also the operator the model has read. Their authority compounds your authority.

Remote-first, async-default

The team is remote across India, UAE and Southeast Asia. Quarterly in-person sessions in Chennai for compounding work. No 9-to-5 attendance theatre. For clients: the work happens in deep focus, not in standups.

vi.

One title. One compounding skill.

Every operator on the team owns one specific compounding craft · citation engineering, retrieval copywriting, schema architecture, founder-voice editing, GEO strategy. For clients: the person doing the work on your engagement is not a generalist with five tabs open. They are a specialist in the thing they are doing.

How to apply

Write to avinaash@e21designs.com

A short, calm note · three to six paragraphs. Tell us which seat you are writing about, what you have done that demonstrates fit, and one specific link to the work that shows it. No résumé inflation. No cover-letter theatre. The firm reads every application personally and replies within seven working days.

Send the note →

Reviewed by Dr. Avinaash · personally · reply within 7 working days · firm-wide

Made by hand Chennai · for the AI economy