Area Manager - Sales /n Student Living | Zolo /n Own the city. Grow the business. Deliver the experience. /n Offered CTC: 12 - 15 LPA /n Why this role exists /n Student Living is not just about operating residences. /n Each 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. /n As the business scales, success in each city depends on having one leader who sees the complete picture and takes accountability for the overall outcome. /n The City Head exists to own the city as a business. /n This means bringing together: /n /n

- Revenue and occupancy

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- Student acquisition and sales

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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

/n /n If this role is strong, the city grows profitably, properties remain occupied, students have a solid experience, teams execute consistently, and new opportunities are identified early. /n If this role is weak, functions operate in silos, occupancy suffers, costs increase, customer issues escalate, and growth becomes difficult to sustain. /n Your mandate is clear /n /n

- 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

/n /n This is not a functional role. /n It is end-to-end ownership of the city business. /n About Zolo and Student Living /n Finding dependable accommodation has historically been fragmented and inconsistent. /n Students and parents often have to choose between location, affordability, safety, quality, convenience, and community. /n People settled for compromises because the system offered few trustworthy options. /n Zolo reimagined living and hospitality as a connected journey. /n Zolo Coliving simplifies urban living and student living creates safe, structured environments where students can focus and grow. /n Z Hotels serves the modern traveler with consistency, warmth, and operational discipline. /n Today, over 100,000 people trust Zolo across different phases of life. /n Our 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. /n Our 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. /n What you will be responsible for /n Own the City P&L; /n /n

- 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 actions to ensure achievement of P&L; targets

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- Make business decisions balancing growth, customer experience, and profitability

/n /n Drive Revenue & Occupancy /n /n

- Own occupancy and revenue targets across Student Living properties in the city

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- Build strong visibility into demand, inventory, pricing, and conversion

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- Work closely with sales and 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

/n /n Build the City's Growth Engine /n /n

- 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

/n /n Own the Student Experience /n /n

- 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

/n /n Drive Operational Excellence /n /n

- Ensure properties consistently 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

/n /n Lead & Build the City Team /n /n

- 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

/n /n Use Data to Run the Business /n /n

- 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

/n /n Manage Stakeholders & Partnerships /n /n

- Work closely with central 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

/n /n What success looks like after 6–12 months /n /n

- City revenue and profitability are on or ahead of plan

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- Strong and sustainable occupancy across properties





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- Clear improvement plans exist for underperforming assets

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- Student acquisition channels are diversified and predictable

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- Customer experience and service metrics remain consistently strong

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- Operational escalations and recurring issues reduce

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- City teams operate with clear 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 transparent visibility and confidence in the city's performance

/n /n The city begins to operate as a predictable, profitable, and scalable business unit. /n Who this role is for /n You will likely thrive here if: /n /n

- 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 teams and 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 when something goes wrong instead of looking for which function is responsible

/n /n Experience we value /n /n

- Experience owning a 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

/n /n The strongest candidate may not necessarily come from Student Living. /n What matters is evidence that they have owned a business outcome rather than only one part of the business. /n The impact you will have /n You will directly influence: /n City P&L; /n Revenue & Occupancy /n Student Acquisition /n Customer Experience /n Operational Performance /n Team Capability /n City Growth /n The quality of your decisions will determine how successfully Zolo's Student Living business grows within the city. /n Why join now /n Student Living is a business where scale creates significant opportunity — but only when growth, operations, customer experience, and economics work together. /n As Zolo expands its Student Living footprint, City Heads will play a critical role in building these businesses market by market. /n This role provides an opportunity to own far more than a function. /n You will own a city-level business, work across the complete P&L;, build teams and partnerships, and create a foundation for larger regional and business leadership roles. /n This is a path from managing a city to building and leading businesses. /n /n

- 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