Senior Manager – Legal

Legal | Zolo

Protect the business. Enable decisions. Own legal outcomes.

Why this role exists

As Zolo scales across multiple businesses, properties, partnerships, and geographies, legal decisions increasingly sit at the centre of how the business grows.

Every new property, commercial relationship, vendor arrangement, customer commitment, business partnership, and strategic initiative creates contractual obligations and potential legal exposure.

At this scale, the Legal function cannot operate only as a reviewer of documents.

The business needs a senior legal professional who can understand the commercial objective, identify what genuinely creates risk, structure practical solutions, and help business leaders move forward without exposing the organisation unnecessarily.

The Senior Manager – Legal will take ownership of complex commercial and property-related legal matters while partnering closely with business leaders and senior stakeholders across Zolo.

Your mandate is transparent

- Own complex commercial contracting and negotiations
- Partner with business leaders on legal and commercial decisions
- Identify, evaluate, and mitigate legal risks
- Support property acquisition, leasing, and real-estate-related legal matters
- Strengthen compliance and legal governance
- Manage disputes, notices, and external legal counsel
- Build stronger legal processes as the organisation scales
- Enable business growth without compromising legal protection

This is not a legal documentation role. It is a business-facing legal leadership role where you are expected to protect the organisation while helping the business find practical ways to move forward.

About Zolo

Finding dependable accommodation has historically been fragmented and inconsistent.

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

Zolo reimagined living and hospitality as a connected journey.

Zolo Coliving simplifies urban living.

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

Zeassetz enables structured real estate ownership and asset-backed growth opportunities.

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

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

What you will be responsible for

1. Own Commercial Contracting & Negotiations

- Draft, review, structure, and negotiate complex commercial agreements
- Handle property agreements, leases, management agreements, vendor contracts, service agreements, partnership agreements, NDAs, amendments, and other business contracts
- Lead contractual negotiations with property owners, partners, vendors, and other external stakeholders
- Identify commercial and legal implications beyond individual clauses
- Protect Zolo's interests while finding practical structures that allow transactions to move forward
- Ensure contractual positions reflect business realities and acceptable levels of risk
- Drive agreements from initial discussion through negotiation, execution, and closure

2. Partner with Business Leaders

- Work closely with Business Heads, Operations, Finance, Procurement, HR, Expansion, and other leadership teams
- Understand the commercial objective behind a transaction before providing legal advice
- Translate legal complexity into clear business implications and choices
- Help stakeholders understand what can be accepted, what should be negotiated, and what creates material risk
- Provide practical recommendations rather than limiting legal advice to identifying problems
- Participate in significant commercial and strategic discussions where legal judgment is required

3. Own Property & Real Estate Legal Matters





- Support legal aspects of property acquisition, leasing, management, and operational arrangements
- Review ownership documents, property documentation, commercial terms, and contractual structures
- Identify risks relating to property rights, obligations, tenure, termination, liability, and other material provisions
- Coordinate legal due diligence for new property opportunities wherever required
- Work with internal teams and external counsel to resolve property-related legal issues
- Ensure appropriate legal safeguards are established before significant commitments are made

4. Drive Legal Risk Assessment & Mitigation

- Identify legal and contractual risks before they become business issues
- Evaluate risks based on likelihood, impact, commercial importance, and business context
- Recommend practical mitigation strategies
- Distinguish between manageable commercial risk and unacceptable legal exposure
- Escalate material risks to leadership with clear context and recommendations
- Build preventive mechanisms for recurring legal issues
- Ensure key contractual obligations and exposures remain visible after agreements are signed

5. Own Compliance & Legal Governance

- Monitor relevant legal and regulatory requirements affecting the business
- Work with internal stakeholders to ensure appropriate compliance
- Support statutory, regulatory, and governance requirements across business units
- Review existing processes and identify compliance gaps
- Establish appropriate documentation and controls
- Support audits, inspections, regulatory requirements, and other compliance matters
- Ensure important legal and regulatory obligations have clear ownership and closure

6. Manage Disputes, Notices & Legal Matters

- Review and respond to legal notices, claims, disputes, and other legal communications
- Assess the commercial and legal implications of disputes
- Work with business teams to establish facts and determine appropriate action
- Coordinate litigation and dispute matters with external counsel where required
- Track ongoing matters and ensure timely action
- Recommend settlement, negotiation, escalation, or litigation strategies based on business circumstances
- Maintain leadership visibility into material legal matters and exposure

7. Manage External Counsel & Stakeholders

- Engage and manage external lawyers, consultants, and specialists where required
- Define clear scope and expected outcomes for external counsel
- Review advice received and translate it into actionable business recommendations
- Maintain discipline around timelines, quality, and legal costs
- Ensure external counsel supplements internal capability rather than becoming a substitute for ownership

8. Build Legal Processes That Scale

- Strengthen contracting workflows, approval mechanisms, templates, and legal repositories
- Standardise frequently used agreements and legal positions
- Improve contract turnaround time without compromising quality
- Build clear escalation frameworks for material contractual risks
- Maintain visibility into renewals, expiries, obligations, and critical legal commitments
- Identify opportunities to simplify or automate recurring legal processes
- Support and mentor junior members of the Legal team

What success looks like after 6–12 months

- Business leaders view Legal as a trusted decision partner rather than only an approval function
- Complex contracts are negotiated and closed with stronger commercial and legal protection




- Material risks are identified before commitments are made
- Property and commercial transactions move with greater legal clarity
- Contract turnaround improves without compromising the quality of review
- Recurring contractual and compliance risks reduce
- Legal notices and disputes have clear strategies, ownership, and closure
- Leadership receives clear recommendations on material legal matters
- Contractual obligations and critical legal commitments are systematically tracked
- Legal processes become more structured, scalable, and business-friendly
- Junior Legal team members operate with stronger standards and independence

The Legal function enables the business to move faster because risks are understood, decisions are clearer, and legal ownership is stronger. Who this role is for

You will likely thrive here if:

- You understand that strong in-house Legal teams must enable business, not simply say “no”
- You enjoy negotiating complex commercial agreements
- You can understand the business objective behind a legal request
- You are comfortable advising senior stakeholders
- You can explain complicated legal risks in simple business language
- You know when a contractual point is worth fighting for and when it is commercially acceptable to move forward
- You can take an ambiguous legal problem and create a clear path towards resolution
- You are comfortable taking independent ownership of important legal matters
- You combine attention to detail with strong commercial judgment
- You can manage multiple high-priority matters without compromising quality

Experience we value

- LLB mandatory; LLM is an added advantage
- 3–5 years of relevant legal experience, preferably with significant exposure in real estate industry
- Strong hands-on experience in commercial contracting, drafting, vetting, and negotiations
- Experience handling agreements independently from drafting through negotiation and execution
- Exposure to real estate, property, leasing, hospitality, managed accommodation, PropTech, or similar businesses will be strongly relevant
- Experience advising business leaders and cross-functional stakeholders
- Exposure to compliance, legal notices, disputes, and external counsel management
- Experience mentoring or managing junior Legal team members will be an advantage

Experience matters, but we will place significant emphasis on commercial judgment, contracting depth, ownership, negotiation capability, and the ability to partner effectively with the business. The impact you will have

Your decisions will influence how Zolo enters into commercial relationships, acquires and operates properties, works with partners, manages risk, and scales its businesses.

You will help ensure that:

- Growth does not create uncontrolled legal exposure
- Commercial agreements protect the organisation
- Business leaders understand the risks behind important decisions
- Property transactions have appropriate legal safeguards
- Disputes and regulatory matters are addressed proactively
- Legal processes scale with the organisation

Your job is not simply to identify risk. It is to help the business understand risk, make informed decisions, and move forward with the right protection.

Why join now

Zolo is operating across an increasingly diverse living, hospitality, and real-estate ecosystem.

As the business expands, the complexity and importance of its legal decisions will continue to grow.

This creates an prospect for the Senior Manager – Legal to work closely with business leaders and senior management, influence significant commercial decisions, own complex negotiations, and help shape the legal frameworks required for Zolo's next stage of growth.

For someone who wants to move beyond reviewing contracts and become a genuine legal partner to the business, this role offers the mandate to do exactly that.

📌 Senior Legal Manager (Bengaluru)
🏢 Zolo
📍 Bengaluru