The Prediction & Behavior ML team is responsible for developing machine-learned models that understand the full scene around our vehicle and forecast the behavior for other agents, our own vehicle’s actions, and for offline applications. To solve these problems we develop deep learning algorithms that can learn behaviors from data and apply them on-vehicle to influence our vehicle’s driving behavior and offline to provide learned models to autonomy simulation and validation. Given the tight integration of behavior forecasting and motion planning, our team necessarily works very closely with the Planner team in the advancement of our overall vehicle behavior. The Prediction & Behavior ML team also works closely with our Perception, Simulation, and Systems Engineering teams on many cross-team initiatives.

The Autonomy Software Metrics team is responsible for providing engineers and leadership at Zoox with tools to evaluate the behavior of Zoox’s autonomy stack using simulation. The team collaborates with experts across the organization to ensure a high safety bar, great customer experience, and rapid feedback to developers. The metrics team is responsible for evaluating the complete end-to-end customer experience through simulation, evaluating factors that impact safety, comfort, legality, road citizenship, progress, and more. You’ll be part of a passionate team making transportation safer, smarter, and more sustainable. This role gives you high visibility within the company and is critical for successfully launching our autonomous driving software.

Location Multiple Locations

Description

Members of our team are part of a multi-disciplinary core research group within Qualcomm which spans software, hardware, and systems. Our members contribute technology deployed worldwide by partnering with our business teams across mobile, compute, automotive, cloud, and IOT. We also perform and publish state-of-the-art research on a wide range of topics in machine-learning, ranging from general theory to techniques that enable deployment on resource-constrained devices. Our research team has demonstrated first-in-the-world research and proof-of-concepts in areas such model efficiency, neural video codecs, video semantic segmentation, federated learning, and wireless RF sensing (https://www.qualcomm.com/ai-research), has won major research competitions such as the visual wake word challenge, and converted leading research into best-in-class user-friendly tools such as Qualcomm Innovation Center’s AI Model Efficiency Toolkit (https://github.com/quic/aimet). We recently demonstrated the feasibility of running a foundation model (Stable Diffusion) with >1 billion parameters on an Android phone under one second after performing our full-stack AI optimizations on the model.

Role responsibility can include both, applied and fundamental research in the field of machine learning with development focus in one or many of the following areas:

• Conducts fundamental machine learning research to create new models or new training methods in various technology areas, e.g. large language models, deep generative models (VAE, Normalizing-Flow, ARM, etc), Bayesian deep learning, equivariant CNNs, adversarial learning, diffusion models, active learning, Bayesian optimizations, unsupervised learning, and ML combinatorial optimization using tools like graph neural networks, learned message-passing heuristics, and reinforcement learning.

• Drives systems innovations for model efficiency advancement on device as well as in the cloud. This includes auto-ML methods (model-based, sampling based, back-propagation based) for model compression, quantization, architecture search, and kernel/graph compiler/scheduling with or without systems-hardware co-design.

• Performs advanced platform research to enable new machine learning compute paradigms, e.g., compute in memory, on-device learning/training, edge-cloud distributed/federated learning, causal and language-based reasoning.

• Creates new machine learning models for advanced use cases that achieve state-of-the-art performance and beyond. The use cases can broadly include computer vision, audio, speech, NLP, image, video, power management, wireless, graphics, and chip design

• Design, develop & test software for machine learning frameworks that optimize models to run efficiently on edge devices. Candidate is expected to have strong interest and deep passion on making leading-edge deep learning algorithms work on mobile/embedded platforms for the benefit of end users.

• Research, design, develop, enhance, and implement different components of machine learning compiler for HW Accelerators.

• Design, implement and train DL/RL algorithms in high-level languages/frameworks (PyTorch and TensorFlow).

London

Who we are Established in 2017, Wayve is a leader in autonomous vehicle technology, driven by breakthroughs in Embodied AI. Our intelligent, mapless, and hardware-agnostic technologies empower vehicles to navigate complex environments effortlessly.

Supported by prominent investors, Wayve is advancing the transition from assisted to fully automated driving, making transportation safer, more efficient, and universally accessible. Join our world-class, multinational team of engineers and researchers as we push the boundaries of frontier AI and autonomous driving, creating impactful technologies and products on a global scale

Where you will have an impact We're looking for an experienced Applied Scientist with expertise in Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs) and Gaussian Splatting to join our Vision & Graphics team and advance our innovative neural simulator, Ghost Gym. This role is central to improving Ghost Gym's capabilities, utilizing state-of-the-art neural rendering techniques to craft photorealistic 4D worlds. You'll be at the forefront of developing and applying groundbreaking research to generate thousands of simulated scenarios. These scenarios are critical for training, testing, and debugging our end-to-end AI driving models, contributing significantly to the creation of safe and reliable AI driving technology. Your work will focus on improving the efficiency, realism, and dynamism of our simulations, especially for dynamic and outdoor environments, pushing the limits of current photorealistic visualization technologies.

Challenges you will own Conducting cutting-edge research in NeRFs, Gaussian splatting, and related technologies, with a focus on solving real-world challenges in 3D rendering Developing and implementing algorithms for efficient, high-quality 3D scene reconstruction and rendering, particularly for dynamic and outdoor environments Collaborating with cross-functional teams to integrate research findings into scalable, production-level solutions Staying abreast of the latest developments in the field, evaluating and incorporating state-of-the-art techniques into our workflows Potentially finding opportunities to publish research findings in top-tier journals and conferences, contributing to the scientific community and establishing Wayve as a leader in the field What you will bring to Wayve Essential Proven track record of research in NeRFs, Gaussian splatting, or closely related areas, demonstrated through publications or deployed applications Strong programming skills in Python with experience in deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch Solid foundation in mathematics and physics underlying 3D graphics and rendering techniques Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently as well as in a team environment Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, innovative, interdisciplinary team environment

Desirable Experience with dynamic scene reconstruction and rendering, particularly in outdoor environments Familiarity with parallel computing, GPU programming, and optimization techniques PhD or MSc in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, with a focus on computer graphics, computer vision, or machine learning What we offer you The chance to be part of a truly mission driven organisation and an opportunity to shape the future of autonomous driving. Unlike our competitors, Wayve is still relatively small and nimble, giving you the chance to make a huge impact Competitive compensation and benefits A dynamic and fast-paced work environment in which you will grow every day - learning on the job, from the brightest minds in our space, and with support for more formal learning opportunities too A culture that is ego-free, respectful and welcoming (of you and your dog) - we even eat lunch together every day

Location Multiple Locations

Description

Qualcomm's Multimedia R&D and Standards Group is seeking candidates for Video Compression Research Engineer positions. You will be part of world-renowned team of video compression experts. The team develops algorithms, hardware architectures, and systems for state-of-the-art applications of classical and machine learning methods in video compression, video processing, point cloud coding and processing, AR/VR and computer vision use cases. The successful candidate for this position will be a highly self-directed individual with strong creative and analytic skills and a passion for video compression technology. You will work on, but not be limited to, developing new applications of classical and machine learning methods in video compression improving state-of-the-art video codecs.

We are considering candidates with various levels of experience. We are flexible on location and open to hiring anywhere, preferred locations are USA, Germany and Taiwan.

Responsibilities: Contribute to the conception, development, implementation, and optimization of new algorithms extending existing techniques and systems allowing improved video compression. Initiate ideas, design and implement algorithms for superior hardware encoder performance, including perceptually based bit allocation. Develop new algorithms for deep learning-based video compression solutions. Represent Qualcomm in the related standardization forums: JVET, MPEG Video, and ITU-T/VCEG. Document and present new algorithms and implementations in various forms, including standards contributions, patent applications, conference and journal publications, presentations, etc. Ideal candidate would have the skills/experience below: Expert knowledge of the theory, algorithms, and techniques used in video and image coding. Knowledge and experience of video codecs and their test models, such as ECM, VVC, HEVC and AV1. Experience with deep learning structures CNN, RNN, autoencoder etc. and frameworks like TensorFlow/PyTorch. Track record of successful research accomplishments demonstrated through published papers, and/or patent applications in the fields of video coding or video processing. Solid programming and debugging skills in C/C++. Strong written and verbal English communication skills, great work ethic, and ability to work in a team environment to accomplish common goals. PhD or Masters degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics or similar field, or equivalent practical experience.

Qualifications: PhD or Masters degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, or similar fields. 1+ years of experience with programming language such as C, C++, MATLAB, etc.

Location Seattle, WA

Description To help a growing organization quickly deliver more efficient features to Prime Video customers, Prime Video’s READI organization is innovating on behalf of our global software development team consisting of thousands of engineers. The READI organization is building a team specialized in forecasting and recommendations. This team will apply supervised learning algorithms for forecasting multi-dimensional related time series using recurrent neural networks. The team will develop forecasts on key business dimensions and recommendations on performance and efficiency opportunities across our global software environment.

As a member of the team, you will apply your deep knowledge of machine learning to concrete problems that have broad cross-organizational, global, and technology impact. Your work will focus on retrieving, cleansing and preparing large scale datasets, training and evaluating models and deploying them for customers, where we continuously monitor and evaluate. You will work on large engineering efforts that solve significantly complex problems facing global customers. You will be trusted to operate with complete independence and are often assigned to focus on areas where the business and/or architectural strategy has not yet been defined. You must be equally comfortable digging in to business requirements as you are drilling into designs with development teams and developing ready-to-use learning models. You consistently bring strong, data-driven business and technical judgment to decisions.

The Prediction & Behavior ML team is responsible for developing machine-learned models that understand the full scene around our vehicle and forecast the behavior for other agents, our own vehicle’s actions, and for offline applications. To solve these problems we develop deep learning algorithms that can learn behaviors from data and apply them on-vehicle to influence our vehicle’s driving behavior and offline to provide learned models to autonomy simulation and validation. Given the tight integration of behavior forecasting and motion planning, our team necessarily works very closely with the Planner team in the advancement of our overall vehicle behavior. The Prediction & Behavior ML team also works closely with our Perception, Simulation, and Systems Engineering teams on many cross-team initiatives.

Redmond, Washington, United States

Overview We are seeking a Principal Research Engineer to join our organization and help improve steerability and control Large Language Models (LLMs) and other AI systems. Our team currently develops Guidance, a fully open-source project that enables developers to control language models more precisely and efficiently with constrained decoding.

As a Principal Research Engineer, you will play a crucial role in advancing the frontier of constrained decoding and imagining new application programming interface (APIs) for language models. If you’re excited about links between formal grammars and generative AI, deeply understanding and optimizing LLM inference, enabling more responsible AI without finetuning and RLHF, and/or exploring fundamental changes to the “text-in, text-out” API, we’d love to hear from you. Our team offers a vibrant environment for cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research. We have a long track record of open-source code and open publication policies, and you’ll have the opportunity to collaborate with world-leading experts across Microsoft and top academic institutions across the world.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond. In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Responsibilities Develop and implement new constrained decoding research techniques for increasing LLM inference quality and/or efficiency. Example areas of interest include speculative execution, new decoding strategies (e.g. extensions to beam search), “classifier in the loop” decoding for responsible AI, improving AI planning, and explorations of attention-masking based constraints. Re-imagine the use and construction of context-free grammars (CFG) and beyond to fit Generative AI. Examples of improvements here include better tools for constructing formal grammars, extensions to Earley parsing, and efficient batch processing for constrained generation. Consideration of how these techniques are presented to developers – who may not be well versed in grammars and constrained generation -- in an intuitive, idiomatic programming syntax is also top of mind. Design principled evaluation frameworks and benchmarks for measuring the effects of constrained decoding on a model. Some areas of interest to study carefully include efficiency (token throughput and latency), generation quality, and impacts of constrained decoding on AI safety. Publish your research in top AI conferences and contribute your research advances to the guidance open-source project. Other

Embody our Culture and Values

Vancouver

Who we are Established in 2017, Wayve is a leader in autonomous vehicle technology, driven by breakthroughs in Embodied AI. Our intelligent, mapless, and hardware-agnostic technologies empower vehicles to navigate complex environments effortlessly.

Supported by prominent investors, Wayve is advancing the transition from assisted to fully automated driving, making transportation safer, more efficient, and universally accessible. Join our world-class, multinational team of engineers and researchers as we push the boundaries of frontier AI and autonomous driving, creating impactful technologies and products on a global scale

Where you will have an impact We are seeking an experienced researcher to be a founding member of our Vancouver team! We are prioritising someone with experience actively participating in AI projects applied to autonomous driving or similar robotics or decision-making domains, inclusive, but not limited to the following specific areas:

Foundation models for robotics or embodied AI Model-free and model-based reinforcement learning Offline reinforcement learning Large language models Planning with learned models, model predictive control and tree search Imitation learning, inverse reinforcement learning and causal inference Learned agent models: behavioural and physical models of cars, people, and other dynamic agents Challenges you will own You'll be working on some of the world's hardest problems, and able to attack them in new ways. You'll be a key member of our diverse, cross-disciplinary team, helping teach our robots how to drive safely and comfortably in complex real-world environments. This encompasses many aspects of research across perception, prediction, planning, and control, including:

How to leverage our large, rich, and diverse sources of real-world driving data How to architect our models to best employ the latest advances in foundation models, transformers, world models, etc, evaluating and incorporating state-of-the-art techniques into our workflows. Which learning algorithms to use (e.g. reinforcement learning, behavioural cloning) How to leverage simulation for controlled experimental insight, training data augmentation, and re-simulation How to scale models efficiently across data, model size, and compute, while maintaining efficient deployment on the car Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate research findings into scalable, production-level solutions. You also have the potential to contribute to academic publications for top-tier conferences like NeurIPS, CVPR, ICRA, ICLR, CoRL etc. working in a world-class team, contributing to the scientific community and establishing Wayve as a leader in the field.

What you will bring to Wayve Proven track record of research in one or more of the topics above demonstrated through deployed applications or publications. Strong programming skills in Python, with experience in deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch, numpy, pandas, etc. Experience bringing a machine learning research concept through the full ML development cycle Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently as well as in a team environment. Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, innovative, interdisciplinary team environment. Desirable: Experience bringing an ML research concept through to production and at scale PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field

What we offer you The chance to be part of a truly mission driven organisation and an opportunity to shape the future of autonomous driving. Unlike our competitors, Wayve is still relatively small and nimble, giving you the chance to make a huge impact Competitive compensation and benefits A dynamic and fast-paced work environment in which you will grow every day - learning on the job, from the brightest minds in our space, and with support for more formal learning opportunities too

Redmond, Washington, United States

Overview We are seeking highly skilled and passionate research scientists to join Responsible & Open Ai Research (ROAR) in Azure Cognitive Services in Redmond, WA.

As a Principal Research Scientist, you will play a key role in advancing Responsible AI approaches to ensure safe releases of GenAI models such as GPT-4o, DALL-E, Sora, and beyond, as well as to expand and enhance the capability of Azure AI Content Safety Service.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities Conduct cutting-edge, deployment-driven research to develop Responsible AI definitions, methodologies, algorithms, and models for both measurement and mitigation of textual and multimodal AI risks. Stay abreast of the latest advancements in the field and contribute to the scientific community through publications at top venues.

Enable the safe release of multimodal models from OpenAI in Azure OpenAI Service, expand and enhance the Azure AI Content Safety Service with new detection/mitigation technologies in text and multimodal content. Develop innovative approaches to address AI safety challenges for diverse customer scenarios.

Review business and product requirements and incorporate state-of-the-art research to formulate plans that will meet business goals. Identifies gaps and determines which tools, technologies, and methods to incorporate to ensure quality and scientific rigor. Proactively provides mentorship and coaching to less experienced and mid-level team members.

Captions is the AI-powered creative studio. Millions of creators around the world have used Captions to make their video content stand out from the pack and we're on a mission to empower the next billion.

Based in NYC, we are a team of ambitious, experienced, and devoted engineers, designers, and marketers. You'll be joining an early team where you'll have an outsized impact on both the product and company's culture.

We’re very fortunate to have some the best investors and entrepreneurs backing us, including Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Uncommon Projects, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, Antoine Martin, Julie Zhuo, Ben Rubin, Jaren Glover, SVAngel, 20VC, Ludlow Ventures, Chapter One, Lenny Rachitsky, and more.

Check out our latest milestone and our recent feature on the TODAY show and the New York Times.

** Please note that all of our roles will require you to be in-person at our NYC HQ (located in Union Square) **

Responsibilities:

Conduct research and develop models to advance the state-of-the-art in generative computer vision technologies, with a focus on creating highly realistic digital faces, bodies, avatars.

Strive to set new standards in the realism of 3D digital human appearance, movement, and personality, ensuring that generated content closely resembles real-life scenarios.

Implement techniques to achieve high-quality results in zero-shot or few-shot settings, as well as customized avatars for different use cases while maintaining speed and accuracy.

Develop innovative solutions to enable comprehensive customization of video content, including the creation of digital people, modifying scenes, and manipulating actions and speech within videos.

Preferred Qualifications:

PhD in computer science (or related field) and/ or 5+ years of industry experience.

Strong academic background with a focus on computer vision and transformers, specializing in NeRFs, Gaussian Splatting, Diffusion, GANs or related areas.

Publication Record: Highly relevant publication history, with a focus on generating or manipulating realistic digital faces, bodies, expressions, body movements, etc. Ideal candidates will have served as the primary author on these publications.

Expertise in Deep Learning: Proficiency in deep learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar, with hands-on experience in designing, training, and deploying neural networks for multimodal tasks.

Strong understanding of Computer Science fundamentals (algorithms and data structures).

Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans

Anything you need to do your best work

We’ve done team off-sites to places like Paris, London, Park City, Los Angeles, Upstate NY, and Nashville with more planned in the future.

Captions provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Please note benefits apply to full time employees only.

Location Sunnyvale, CA Bellevue, WA Seattle, WA

Description The Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) team is looking for a passionate, talented, and inventive Applied Science Manager with a strong deep learning background, to lead the development of industry-leading technology with multimodal systems.

As an Applied Science Manager with the AGI team, you will lead the development of novel algorithms and modeling techniques to advance the state of the art with multimodal systems. Your work will directly impact our customers in the form of products and services that make use of vision and language technology. You will leverage Amazon’s heterogeneous data sources and large-scale computing resources to accelerate development with multimodal Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in Computer Vision.

Redmond, Washington, United States

Overview Microsoft Research (MSR) AI Frontiers lab is seeking applications for the position of Principal Researcher – Generative AI to join their team.

The mission of the AI Frontiers lab is to expand the pareto frontier of Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, efficiency, and safety through innovations in foundation models and learning agent platforms. Some of our projects include work on Small Language Models (e.g. Phi, Orca) and Multi-Agent AI (e.g. AutoGen).

We are seeking a Principal Researcher – Generative AI to join our team and lead efforts on the advancement of Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) technologies. As a Principal Researcher – Generative AI, you will play a crucial role in leading, developing, improving, and exploring the capabilities of Generative AI models. Your work will have a significant impact on the development of cutting-edge technologies, advancing state-of-the-art and providing practical solutions to real-world problems.  

Our ongoing research areas encompass but are not limited to:

Pre-training: especially of small language and multimodal models Alignment and Post-training: e.g., Instruction tuning and reinforcement learning from feedback Continual Learning: Enabling LLMs to evolve and adapt over time and learn from previous experiences human interactions Specialization: Tailoring LLMs to meet application-specific requirements Orchestration and multi-agent systems: automated orchestration between multiple agents incorporating human feedback and oversight

MSR offers a vibrant environment for cutting-edge, multidisciplinary, research, including access to diverse, real-world problems and data, opportunities for experimentation and real-world impact, an open publication policy, and close links to top academic institutions around the world.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.   

Responsibilities You will perform cutting-edge research in collaboration with other researchers, engineers, and product groups.
As a member of a word-class research organization, you will be a part of research breakthroughs in the field and will be given an opportunity to realize your ideas in products and services used worldwide. Embody our culture and values.

Seattle, WA; Costa Mesa, CA; Boston, MA

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century’s most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril’s family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI-powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.

THE ROLE We build Lattice, the foundation for everything we do as a defense technology company. Our engineers are talented and hard-working, motivated to see their work rapidly deployed on the front lines. Our team is not just building an experiment in waiting, we deploy what we build on the Southern border, Iraq, Ukraine and more.

We have open roles across Platform Engineering, ranging from core infrastructure to distributed systems, web development, networking and more. We hire self-motivated people, those who hold a higher bar for themselves than anyone else could hold for them. If you love building infrastructure, platform services, or just working in high performing engineering cultures we invite you to apply!

YOU SHOULD APPLY IF YOU: -At least 3+ years working with a variety of programming languages such as Rust, Go, C++, Java, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, etc. -Have experience working with customers to deliver novel software capabilities -Want to work on building and integrating model/software/hardware-in-the-loop components by leveraging first and third party technologies (related to simulation, data management, compute infrastructure, networking, and more). -Love building platform and infrastructure tooling that enables other software engineers to scale their output -Enjoy collaborating with team members and partners in the autonomy domain, and building technologies and processes which enable users to safely and rapidly develop and deploy autonomous systems at scale. -Are a U.S. Person because of required access to U.S. export controlled information

Note: The above bullet points describe the ideal candidate. None of us matched all of these at once when we first joined Anduril. We encourage you to apply even if you believe you meet only part of our wish list.

NICE TO HAVE -You've built or invented something: an app, a website, game, startup -Previous experience working in an engineering setting: a startup (or startup-like environment), engineering school, etc. If you've succeeded in a low structure, high autonomy environment you'll succeed here! -Professional software development lifecycle experience using tools such as version control, CICD systems, etc. -A deep, demonstrated understanding of how computers and networks work, from a single desktop to a multi-cluster cloud node -Experience building scalable backend software systems with various data storage and processing requirements -Experience with industry standard cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), CI/CD tools, and software infrastructure fundamentals (networking, security, distributed systems) -Ability to quickly understand and navigate complex systems and established code bases -Experience implementing robot or autonomous vehicle testing frameworks in a software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) environment -Experience with modern build and deployment tooling (e.g. NixOS, Terraform) -Experience designing complex software systems, and iterating upon designs via a technical design review process -Familiarity with industry standard monitoring, logging, and data management tools and best practices -A bias towards rapid delivery and iteration