Derek Z. H. Yan
Applied AI Leader | Ex-Founder/CTO, Polarr (acq.)
- Role
- Director of Engineering at Pixieset
- Location
- San Jose, CA, US
- LinkedIn followers
- 500 followers
About Derek Z. H. Yan
Former CTO and Cofounder of Polarr, building applied AI for computational photography, image processing, and edge inference. Led teams across research, engineering, product, and partnerships from inception through acquisition by Pixieset (May 2025). Shipped on-device models to 100M+ devices through OEM partnerships with Samsung, LG, and Xiaomi, and scaled consumer apps to 6M+ MAU. Wrote a book on the experience: The Toughest Sell (available on Amazon).
Experience
Director of Engineering
May 2025 — Present · Vancouver, BC, CA
Polarr was acquired by Pixieset in May 2025. Leading and scaling a cross-functional org integrating Polarr\'s on-device AI and computational photography stack into Pixieset\'s platform while building new AI-native product experiences for professional photographers. Own applied AI research and engineering, spanning on-device inference, model development, and AI-powered workflow agents.If you\'re an applied AI engineer or researcher with a focus in computational photography, VLMs, or diffusion models, I\'d love to hear from you.
Education
University of Waterloo
Bachelor's degree, Mechatronics Engineering
Stanford University
Master's degree, Electrical Engineering
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