Associate Program Manager

Student Living | Zolo

Drive priorities. Connect teams. Turn business plans into execution.

Why this role exists

Student Living requires multiple teams to work together to deliver one outcome. Growth depends on student acquisition, occupancy, institutional partnerships, property operations, student experience, and consistent execution across locations.

With multiple initiatives running simultaneously—recent property launches, occupancy improvement, acquisition programs, operational improvements, customer experience initiatives, partnerships, and business reviews—strong program management is critical.

The Associate Program Manager will bring structure, visibility, and execution discipline across these priorities, working closely with Student Living leadership to move initiatives from decision → plan → ownership → execution → closure.

Your mandate

- Drive execution of critical Student Living initiatives
- Translate business priorities into structured action plans
- Coordinate across Sales, Operations, Customer Experience, Marketing, Finance, Product, HR, and other teams
- Track timelines, dependencies, risks, and outcomes
- Build visibility into business and program performance
- Identify execution gaps early and drive closure
- Support leadership with structured analysis and business reviews
- Create greater accountability and predictability in execution

This is not a role that simply tracks what teams are doing. It is a role that ensures important business priorities actually get delivered. About Zolo and Student Living

Finding dependable accommodation has historically been fragmented and inconsistent, with students and parents balancing location, affordability, safety, quality, convenience, and community.

Zolo is building a more reliable and professionally managed living experience. Zolo Student Living brings together accommodation, operations, service, technology, and community to create environments where students can live comfortably while focusing on their education and growth.

Building Student Living at scale requires understanding local demand, building institutional relationships, driving occupancy, delivering consistent operations, and creating an experience students and parents trust.

What you will be responsible for

- Drive Business-Critical Programs

- Own end-to-end execution of key Student Living initiatives
- Translate leadership priorities into projects, milestones, owners, and timelines
- Drive programs across occupancy, growth, operations, customer experience, partnerships, and other priorities
- Maintain momentum across multi-team initiatives
- Ensure committed actions move to closure
- Identify delays early and intervene before they impact the business

2. Drive Occupancy & Growth Initiatives
- Support programs focused on occupancy and student acquisition
- Track performance across properties, cities, institutions, and acquisition channels
- Coordinate Sales, Marketing, Operations, and institutional teams
- Identify initiatives or properties falling behind plan and drive follow-through
- Build visibility into what is working, what is not, and where intervention is required





The role does not directly own Sales, but ensures occupancy-related initiatives have clear ownership and execution discipline.

- Cross-Functional Execution

- Work across Sales, Operations, Customer Experience, Marketing, Finance, Product, HR, and other functions
- Identify dependencies before they become blockers
- Bring the right stakeholders together to resolve issues
- Establish clear ownership for actions and decisions
- Drive follow-ups and escalate unresolved issues with clear context and recommendations

4. Business Reviews & Performance Visibility
- Build structured business reviews for Student Living leadership
- Track critical business and operational KPIs
- Prepare dashboards, performance updates, and executive summaries
- Identify trends, gaps, risks, and exceptions
- Ensure reviews focus on decisions and actions, not only reporting numbers
- Maintain visibility on actions committed during leadership reviews

5. New Property & Business Initiatives
- Support execution of new property launches and expansion initiatives
- Build launch plans covering key cross-functional dependencies
- Coordinate readiness across relevant teams
- Identify risks impacting launch timelines or property stabilisation
- Track post-launch priorities until operations reach expected stability
- Capture learnings and improve future launch playbooks

6. Student Experience Improvement
- Support initiatives that improve the student living experience
- Track recurring customer issues and operational gaps
- Work with teams to identify underlying causes
- Drive cross-functional improvement programs beyond complaint closure
- Monitor whether implemented changes deliver the intended outcome

7. Problem Solving & Process Improvement
- Identify recurring execution problems
- Break ambiguous problems into structured workstreams
- Analyse information before recommending actions
- Identify inefficient or manual processes
- Simplify and standardise ways of working
- Build repeatable processes for recurring problems

8. Program Governance & Execution Discipline
- Maintain program plans, trackers, decision logs, and action registers
- Ensure critical initiatives have clear ownership and timelines
- Track milestones, dependencies, risks, and blockers
- Create early visibility when commitments are likely to slip
- Ensure review meetings end with clear decisions, owners, and timelines
- Follow through until agreed actions are completed

What success looks like after 6–12 months

- Critical initiatives move from discussion to execution faster
- Leadership has clear visibility into priorities and program health
- Occupancy and growth initiatives have structured tracking and ownership
- New property launches are better coordinated




- Cross-functional dependencies are identified and resolved earlier
- Business reviews become sharper, data-led, and action-oriented
- Risks and delays are surfaced before materially impacting outcomes
- Student experience initiatives address root causes, not just complaints
- Teams have greater clarity on ownership, timelines, and outcomes
- Recurring execution problems reduce through stronger processes
- Leadership spends less time chasing actions and more time driving the business

Who this role is for You will likely thrive here if you:

- Enjoy bringing structure to ambiguous business problems
- Take ownership beyond simply completing assigned tasks
- Can work with multiple teams without formal authority
- Are comfortable moving between data, meetings, projects, and on-ground execution
- Ask “Why is this happening?” rather than only reporting what happened
- Can distinguish what is important from what is simply urgent
- Communicate clearly with leadership and execution teams
- Follow through until outcomes are delivered
- Are comfortable in a fast-moving business where priorities can change
- Want exposure to how an entire business vertical operates rather than specialising in one function

Experience we value

- 1–4 years of experience in Program Management, Business Operations, Strategy & Operations, Project Management, Founder’s Office, CEO/COO’s Office, Consulting, PMO, or similar roles
- Experience driving projects involving multiple teams and stakeholders
- Strong analytical and structured problem-solving ability
- Strong Excel / Google Sheets and presentation skills
- Ability to work with business metrics and convert data into meaningful observations
- Strong written and verbal communication
- Experience building business reviews, trackers, dashboards, or leadership updates
- Experience in Student Housing, Education, Hospitality, Co-living, Consumer Services, PropTech, or other multi-location businesses is helpful but not mandatory

Industry experience matters less than demonstrated: Ownership | Structured Thinking | Business Understanding | Cross-Functional Execution | Problem Solving | Execution Discipline The impact you will have

Your work will directly influence how effectively Student Living executes its most important priorities, including:

Occupancy & Growth | Property Performance | Student Experience | New Property Launches | Cross-Functional Alignment | Leadership Visibility | Speed of Execution

You will work closely with the business and gain visibility into how growth, sales, operations, customer experience, and business performance come together.

Why join now

Zolo's Student Living business is at a stage where strong execution can significantly influence the pace and quality of growth.

As the business expands across properties, institutions, and markets, complexity will increase—and so will the need for people who can bring structure to it.

This role gives you the opportunity to work closely with Student Living leadership, solve real business problems, and drive initiatives across the entire vertical.

You won't be observing the business from the sidelines. You will be helping make it move.

📌 Associate Program Manager (Bengaluru)
🏢 Zolo
📍 Bengaluru