Yao is a designer and creative technologist whose work focuses on combining the digital and physical worlds with the user at the center of the interaction. At Snap Inc., she designs and builds developer tools, samples, and AI-driven prototyping workflows on Lens Studio — shaping how hundreds of thousands of creators bring AR experiences to life. Before Snap, she was a Design Technologist at Samsung Research America's AI Center, prototyping experiences across voice, computer vision, robotics, and intelligent environments. Her practice spans engineering, design, and art.

She was an invited AWE USA 2022 speaker on building fashion and retail AR experiences, has authored official Lens Studio tutorials on Snap's YouTube channel, and has presented immersive performances at Transmediale Festival in Berlin. She is a Red Dot Award recipient and a Lens Fest judge.

Yao holds an MPS from NYU Tisch's Interactive Telecommunications Program and a BS in Psychology and Industrial Design from Zhejiang University — a foundation that anchors her technical work in human behavior and design thinking.