Assistant Community Manager

Skills That Drive This Role

This Assistant Community Manager position at Hillside San Marcos runs on two distinct skill sets working at the same time: financial discipline and people management. On any given day, you might be chasing down a delinquent account, coaching a leasing associate through a difficult resident interaction, walking a vacant unit for a punch list, and then sitting down to reconcile accounts receivable before the month closes. Student housing doesn't slow down, and neither does this role.

The financial side is real and consequential. You'll own delinquency tracking with a hard target of under 2% at month end, which means consistent follow-through on late fees, NSF charges, and collection procedures. Move-out billing, damage assessments, and utility billing coordination all run through you. Scion uses Entrata, so comfort with a property management system isn't optional; it's the baseline expectation from day one.

On the people side, you're coaching staff, backing up the General Manager, and stepping in to run the property when they're out. That's a meaningful level of responsibility for an assistant-level title. It requires someone who can handle escalated resident concerns without losing composure and who understands that the team's output reflects directly on their own performance.

The Work Itself

Student housing has its own rhythm. The annual turn is the defining operational event, and you'll help plan and execute it. Hundreds of move-outs and move-ins compressed into a short window, room assignments, transfers, inspections, and make-readies all happening in parallel. If you've managed a turn before, you already know what that pressure feels like. If you haven't, expect to learn quickly.

Outside of turn season, the work includes:

• Weekly market surveys to stay current on local comps and pricing
• Monthly walks of vacant apartments and bed spaces
• Regular inspections of grounds, common areas, and amenities
• Coordinating work orders with maintenance staff or outside vendors
• Managing promotional materials and concession budgets within set parameters
• Delivering resident notices and handling eviction filings per local ordinance
• After-hours on-call coverage as part of the standard schedule rotation

Fair Housing compliance training and enforcement applies to all onsite staff, and you're responsible for making sure your team stays current.

What Sets Strong Candidates Apart Here

Student housing attracts a specific kind of operator. The resident population is younger, more transient, and often dealing with living independently for the first time. That means a higher volume of customer service interactions, more escalations, and residents who sometimes need guidance rather than just a policy citation. The candidates who do well here combine genuine patience with clear boundaries. They don't let difficult situations fester, but they also don't treat every noise complaint as a confrontation.

Experience in student housing or lease-up environments is a real advantage. The bed-space model, the roommate dynamics, the parent calls during move-in week: these aren't things you want to encounter for the first time in a senior-adjacent role. One or more years in property management is required, but relevant context matters as much as tenure.

This role sits one level below General Manager. For someone building toward that title, the AGM position at a larger student housing operation gives you exposure to both the operational and financial sides of asset performance, which is exactly the experience that prepares you for a GM seat.