Dr Yao has been with the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in Singapore for 17 years. He has served as Chief of the Department of Geriatric Psychiatry since 2019 and has chaired the Code Blue Committee at IMH for the past 12 years, overseeing the institution's emergency resuscitation protocols. Under his leadership, the committee has improved the quality of resuscitation efforts, contributing to a sustained reduction in patient mortality during code blue incidents. From 2014 to 2020, Dr Yao served as Project Director for the Aged Psychiatric Community Assessment and Treatment Service (APCATS), which delivers community-based psychiatric care to older adults. During this time, he also trained primary care physicians in establishing dementia clinics within polyclinics to improve access to early diagnosis and management. 

Throughout his career, Dr Yao has initiated and completed treatment programmes as proof-of-concept and proof-of-value projects, and continues to lead quality improvement initiatives and mentor staff in these efforts. He is an active researcher whose published work spans the prevalence of dementia and depression in Singapore's elderly population, multimorbidity, loneliness in older adults, and the effectiveness of a resuscitation course tailored for a tertiary psychiatric hospital. He has also played a key role in establishing a departmental standing database to support ongoing research and data analysis. In addition to his clinical and research contributions, Dr Yao is regularly featured in national media advocating for dementia care and mental health awareness. He led his team in developing a novel mobile application that uses gamification to train caregivers in effective communication strategies with persons living with dementia. 

Beyond his clinical and research roles, Dr Yao is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at NTU's Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine and a Clinical Lecturer at NUS's Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He holds external appointments including Chairman of the First Aid and Mental Health sub-committee of the St John Association and membership on the MOH Review Panel. His key areas of clinical and research interest include the management of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), integrated models of care, and the delivery of life support services within tertiary psychiatric settings.