Job Description

1. BACKGROUND

Oky is a digital innovation co-created with and for adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Created by

UNICEF and an approved digital public good, Oky serves as a menstruation/sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education

and period tracker app for adolescent girls that addresses the taboos, misconceptions, and lack of quality information

surrounding reproductive health. Built collaboratively with girls to meet the unique digital realities of girls, Oky is gamified,

digitally inclusive, works completely offline, and prioritizes data protection and privacy, making it a vital resource for

empowering girls through menstruation/SRH knowledge.

Oky allows adolescent girls to have crucial puberty and SRH information at their fingertips to help them confidently navigate

adolescence. It builds adolescent girls and young women's agency through access to evidence-based and girl-friendly SRH

and CSE information - delivered in the way they want it, on the digital platforms they use every day - to enable girls to build

their knowledge, make informed decisions, and understand and claim their rights and their bodily autonomy.

Key features of Oky

Oky is the first open-source digital menstruation education & period tracker app co-created with and for adolescent girls to

make learning fun:

Gamified design for girls (10-19 years) Avatars and personalized interface Period and body positive Evidence-based information in girl-friendly language to learn in entertaining ways. Challenging gender stereotypes and heteronormativity, celebrating diversity. Localized in national languages and to local context.
Girls' digital realities require tailored technology:

Light-weight app for low end phones Offline functionality for low connectivity settings Multiple user login and password protection for girls sharing phones Text-to-speech and accessibility features, tutorials, help for low (digital) literacy or vision impairment. Downloadable via link as well as via Bluetooth (ShareIt) Very strict privacy policy and data protection mechanisms
Scaling through partnership

Since its launch in 2020 in Indonesia and Mongolia, Oky has rapidly scaled. As of January 2025, Oky has been localized and

launched in 12 countries and in 23 languages (Burundi, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Nepal, India, Indonesia, Mongolia,

Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan), as well as a global app available in English, French, Portuguese

and Russian. Oky currently serves around 900,000 online users worldwide (as well as innumerable offline users), the majority

of whom are adolescent girls.

For more information on Oky, visit the global website: https://okyapp.info/

Oky is built on a React Native codebase. The Oky app, content management system (CMS) and content is open source. This

means partner organizations can utilize the Oky code and content which is available on GitHub, and the Oky brand if they

sign a franchise with UNICEF, and do not need to bear development or licensing costs. Open source also allows continuous

co-creation and iteration of Oky functionality and the opportunity to build a global community around the app. It can be built

out, adapted, and utilized, by girls and partners around the world.

Oky works with franchise partners in each country where it is live, who take the lead in localization and deployment of Oky

in their country. Each country version is managed by an implementing partner, who holds the franchise license for that

country, and who develop the local version from the open-source code (shared with them upon signing the franchise license

agreement) and provide support and maintenance for their country version of Oky.

The franchise partner for Oky South Africa is New loveLife Trust (loveLife).

loveLife is South Africa's leading youth-focused non-profit organization, established in 1999 to promote healthy, positive,

HIV-free living among young people. Initially launched as a national HIV prevention initiative, loveLife has evolved into a

comprehensive youth development movement that combines digital innovation, multimedia campaigns, and community

outreach to empower youth aged 10-24. loveLife has become more than a youth empowerment movement - it's a digital-first

Full Stack Developer

platform driving positive change. From interactive online programs to cutting-edge mobile engagement, loveLife harness technology

to connect, educate, and inspire young people across South Africa, with a mission to make health, wellness, and opportunity accessible

anytime, anywhere! The future is digital, and so are we!

loveLife is now seeking an experienced Full stack Developer to upgrade the code, and host and maintain Oky in South Africa.

2. DELIVERABLES

The selected Full stack Developer will provide upgrades to the app and provide hosting and maintenance services for Oky South

Africa. The backend will be hosted on a cloud server, and the the Fullstack Developer will establish and maintain the Firebase account

for analytics; App Store and Google Play accounts provided by the franchise partner.

The deliverables will be the following:

Deliverable 1: Take over and update Oky South Africa

Take over and maintain the Oky South Africa source code and the GitHub submodules (private repositories which contain the
brand assets, translations and add-on features access granted after contract has been signed)

Take over and manage the content management system (CMS) for the app Take over and manage the Firebase project for Oky South Africa app analytics Take over and maintain App Store and Play store accounts under franchise partner's name Upgrade the Oky South Africa code to the latest version of the master Oky code (compatible with Android 14+ and optimized for
tablets), via pull requests from the master Oky GitHub repository

Run extensive internal testing and Quality Assurance to ensure the upgrades work okay and work on tablets, and work with the
franchise partner team to release test versions for them and the Oky core team from UNICEF to give feedback before release.

Uploading a bug free app to the respective stores
Deliverable 2: Deploying and hosting Oky on a cloud service provider

Create and set up a hosting environment for the app, including the CMS and deploying the backend e.g. through a Kubernetes
cluster for the app and CMS, and a database on Digital Ocean, Cloud Azure or something similar).

Configure and manage the security certificates Ensure the app adheres to the Oky privacy and data security principles, and follows the global Oky data governance mechanisms Work with the Oky core team Technology Specialist to make updates to the metadata of the Oky South Africa database Read more on recommended server specifications for hosting Oky here.
Deliverable 3: Hosting, support and maintenance

Host, support and maintain Oky products (CMS, app, backend) for 24 months. This may include: Quality assurance to make sure the product is working as expected. Some months, maintenance might include pulling new
stack updates, patches etc that have been made to the master open-source code.

Upload new versions of the apps to the respective stores. Support loveLife in fulfilling data analytics requests as needed, or if requested by the global Oky core team as part of the
franchise license agreement.

3. REQUIRED SKILLS AND PORTFOLIO

Technical skills:

Experience in creating and deploying apps written in React Native. In particular, solid expertise working with React Native
animations.

Track record of using Kubernetes and Docker which will be used for the backend. Experience setting up a PostgreSQL database on a server and setting up its remote connection from the Kubernetes nodes. Solid experience using cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure or Digital Ocean to host projects on a server. Experience in backend development using Node.js under the express framework. Experience in frontend development using Typescript. Understanding of a JavaScript Monorepo, as the CMS, API and mobile app are all in a single code repository. Experience with GitHub Experience in designing apps for Android and/or iOS and iterating on the designs after user feedback (desirable)
Desired profile: The Fullstack Developer should have a minimum of 3 years of experience as a Fullstack Application Engineer using

React Native, Typescript, Kubernetes, Docker, JSON-based animations called Lottie and PostgreSQL databases.

Job Type: Temporary
Contract length: 24 months

Work Location: In person