Peter Yates has been involved in Antarctic operations for over 30 years. He wintered at Mawson Station, Antarctica, in 1983 and 1986, as a young electronics engineer operating and updating the Cosmic Ray Observatory. From 1987 until 1998 he managed the AAD Science Support Electronics Section, participating in projects including development of Automatic Weather Stations, and development and construction of the LIDAR instrument now in operation at Davis Station.

In 1998 he was appointed as the Engineer in charge of the AAD Telecommunications Section, which provided all of Australia's Antarctic Telecommunications and IT infrastructure. In December 2011 his role was expanded to include the IT operation at the AAD headquarters in Hobart, when he became the AAD ICT manager. He retired from this position in December 2014.