Job DescriptionArea Manager - Sales

NStudent Living | Zolo

nOwn the city. Grow the business. Deliver the experience.

NOffered CTC: 12 - 15 LPA

NWhy this role exists

nStudent Living is not just about operating residences.

NEach city is a business that needs to consistently acquire students, maintain strong occupancy, deliver a reliable living experience, control costs, and build relationships that enable long-term growth.

NAs the business scales, success in each city depends on having one leader who sees the complete picture and takes accountability for the overall outcome.

NThe City Head exists to own the city as a business.

NThis means bringing together:

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- Revenue and occupancy
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- Student acquisition andsales
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- Property operations
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- Customer experience
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- Cost and profitability
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- Team performance
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- Institutional and local relationships
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- New property ramp-up and city growth
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nIf this role is strong, the city grows profitably, properties remain occupied, students have a strong experience, teams execute consistently, and new opportunities are identified early.

NIf this role is weak, functions operate in silos, occupancy suffers, costs increase, customer issues escalate, and growth becomes difficult to sustain.

NYour mandate is clear

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- Own the complete P&L; for the city
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- Deliver revenue, occupancy, and profitability targets
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- Drive student acquisition and business growth
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- Ensure properties operate consistently and efficiently
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- Own the end-to-end student experience
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- Build and lead strong city teams
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- Develop institutional and local partnerships
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- Identify and execute new growth opportunities
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- Build a city business that can scale sustainably
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nThis is not a functional role.

NIt is end-to-end ownership of the city business.

NAbout Zolo and Student Living

NFinding dependable accommodation has historically been fragmented and inconsistent.

NStudents and parents often have to choose between location, affordability, safety, quality, convenience, and community.

NPeople settled for compromises because the system offered few trustworthy options.

NZolo reimagined living and hospitality as a connected journey.

NZolo Coliving simplifies urban living and student living creates safe, structured environments where students can focus and grow.

NZ Hotels serves the modern traveler with consistency, warmth, and operational discipline.

NToday, over 100,000 people trust Zolo across different phases of life.

NOur ambition is to build the most trusted living and hospitality ecosystem for the new generation by partnering deeply with property owners who think long term.

NOur Student Living business brings together accommodation, operations, service, community, and technology to create environments where students can live comfortably while focusing on their education and growth.

NWhat you will be responsible for

NOwn the City P&L;

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- Take complete accountability for city revenue, costs, margins, and profitability
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- Build and deliver against annual, quarterly, and monthly business plans
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- Understand the key drivers of city-level financial performance
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- Identify revenue gaps and cost leakages early
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- Take corrective actionsto ensure achievement of P&L; targets
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- Make business decisionsbalancing growth, customer experience, and profitability
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nDrive Revenue & Occupancy

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- Own occupancy andrevenue targets across Student Living properties in the city
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- Build strong visibilityinto demand, inventory, pricing, and conversion
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- Work closely with salesand marketing teams to drive student acquisition
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- Identify underperforming properties and create recovery plans
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- Drive renewals and retention wherever relevant
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- Ensure available inventory is monetized effectively
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nBuild the City's Growth Engine

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- Understand the student housing market, demand pockets, colleges, universities, and competitive landscape
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- Identify opportunities to grow the Student Living business within the city
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- Build relationships with colleges, universities, educational institutions, and other relevant partners
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- Identify new demand channels and partnerships
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- Support evaluation and ramp-up of new properties
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- Build a strong local network that enables future growth
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nOwn the Student Experience

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- Ensure students receive a consistent and reliable living experience across properties
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- Track customer feedback, complaints, service issues, and experience metrics
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- Ensure critical issues are resolved with urgency
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- Identify recurring problems and drive permanent solutions
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- Build strong service standards across properties
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- Balance student expectations with practical and sustainable business decisions
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nDrive Operational Excellence

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- Ensure propertiesconsistently meet defined operating standards
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- Maintain visibility across housekeeping, maintenance, security, food/service delivery, and other critical operations
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- Review property-level performance and intervene where execution is weak
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- Ensure operational issues do not remain unresolved or repeatedly escalate
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- Build systems and review mechanisms that improve execution discipline
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- Ensure new properties stabilize quickly after launch
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nLead & Build the City Team

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- Lead city-level sales, operations, customer experience, and other relevant teams
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- Set clear targets and ownership across functions
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- Build strong second-line leaders and property-level teams
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- Review performance consistently and address gaps quickly
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- Create accountability without becoming the bottleneck for every decision
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- Build a high-performance culture focused on outcomes
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nUse Data to Run the Business

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- Maintain strong visibility into city and property-level performance
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- Track revenue, occupancy, conversion, costs, customer metrics, and operational performance
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- Identify trends and risks before they become larger problems
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- Conduct structured business reviews with teams
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- Use data to prioritize interventions and allocate resources
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- Ensure decisions are based on business outcomes rather than assumptions
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nManage Stakeholders & Partnerships

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- Work closely withcentral Sales, Marketing, Finance, HR, Product, Procurement, and Operations teams
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- Build strong relationships with institutional partners and other external stakeholders
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- Align different teams toward common city-level outcomes
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- Resolve cross-functional blockers that affect business performance
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- Represent the Student Living business effectively within the city
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nWhat success lookslike after 6–12 months

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- City revenue and profitability are on or ahead of plan
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- Solid and sustainable occupancy across properties
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- Clear improvement plansexist for underperforming assets
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- Student acquisition channels are diversified and predictable
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- Customer experience andservice metrics remain consistently strong
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- Operational escalationsand recurring issues reduce
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- City teams operate withclear accountability and ownership
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- Strong relationships are established with relevant colleges, universities, and local partners
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- New properties and growth initiatives are ramped up effectively
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- Leadership has clear visibility and confidence in the city's performance
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nThe city begins tooperate as a predictable, profitable, and scalable business unit.

NWho this role is for

nYou will likely thrive here if:

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- You naturally think like a business owner, not a functional manager
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- You are comfortable owning a P&L; and being accountable for the final number
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- You can move between strategy and on-ground execution
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- You understand that revenue, operations, and customer experience cannot be managed in isolation
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- You enjoy building businesses and solving ambiguous problems
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- You are comfortable taking difficult calls when business outcomes require them
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- You can influence teamsand stakeholders even when they do not directly report to you
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- You use numbers to understand problems but are equally comfortable getting on the ground to solve them
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- You have the energy to operate in a fast-moving, execution-heavy environment
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- You take ownership whensomething goes wrong instead of looking for which function is responsible
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nExperience we value

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- Experience owninga city, region, cluster, category, or business unit
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- Demonstrated exposure to P&L; / revenue / profitability ownership
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- Strong experience across business operations, growth, sales, or general management
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- Experience managing multiple properties, locations, branches, centres, or distributed operations is valuable
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- Strong people leadership and cross-functional management experience
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- Experience in Student Housing, Education, Hospitality, Co-living, PropTech, Hotels, Managed Accommodation, Consumer Services, or other multi-location businesses is preferred
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- Exposure to institutional / B2B partnerships is an advantage
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- Strong commercial and analytical orientation
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nThe strongest candidate may not necessarily come from Student Living.

NWhat matters is evidence that they have owned a business outcome rather than only one part of the business.

NThe impact you will have

NYou will directly influence:

NCity P&L;

nRevenue & Occupancy

NStudent Acquisition

nCustomer Experience

NOperational Performance

NTeam Capability

nCity Growth

NThe quality of your decisions will determine how successfully Zolo's Student Living business grows within the city.

NWhy join now

nStudent Living is a business where scale creates significant opportunity — but only when growth, operations, customer experience, and economics work together.

NAs Zolo expands its Student Living footprint, City Heads will play a critical role in building these businesses market by market.

NThis role provides an opportunity to own far more than a function.

NYou will own a city-levelbusiness, work across the complete P&L;, build teams and partnerships, and create a foundation for larger regional and business leadership roles.

NThis is a path from managing a city to building and leading businesses.

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- Seniority Level
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- Mid-Senior level
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- Industry
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- Hospitality
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- Employment Type
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📌 Area Manager - Sales (Bengaluru)
🏢 Zolo
📍 Bengaluru