Associate, Asset Management

Asset management at the property level requires two distinct skill sets working in parallel: financial modeling sharp enough to justify major capital decisions, and operational fluency to hold execution accountable. This role at The Scion Group uses both, consistently.

What This Role Actually Does

The Scion Group focuses on student housing, a sector with its own rhythms around lease-up cycles, annual turn seasons, and enrollment-driven demand. As an Asset Management Associate, you'll carry direct oversight of a portfolio of owned assets. That means building and owning the financial models that underpin capex decisions, tracking whether projected rent premiums are actually materializing post-renovation, and flagging performance gaps before they compound.

You'll also handle the retail side of mixed-use assets: negotiating letters of intent, working through TI scopes, CAM structures, insurance compliance, and concession terms. Quarterly investor reporting packages fall in your lane too, as does contributing to the annual budget process.

On-site inspections are part of the job. You're expected to develop a ground-level understanding of each asset and bring that context back into your analysis, not just model from a spreadsheet.

The Skills This Role Runs On

• Advanced financial modeling in Excel. This is the core tool. You'll use it to justify repositioning strategies, project ROI on capital improvements, and build investor-facing packages.
• Commercial real estate asset management experience, specifically. Prior exposure to operations, capital projects, and retail leasing is the baseline.
• Communication that translates complex data into clear recommendations for both internal teams and external partners.
• A proactive approach to identifying issues and repositioning opportunities, not waiting for problems to surface in reports.

A bachelor's degree in real estate, finance, economics, or a related STEM field is required. An MBA or advanced degree is a plus. Expect to travel up to 20% of the time, with some flexibility needed during peak periods.

What Makes This Role Specific to Scion

Student housing operates on a compressed annual cycle. Lease-up happens in a narrow window, turn costs are significant, and occupancy swings can be sharp. Asset managers here need to understand those dynamics and factor them into both underwriting assumptions and operational conversations. If your background is purely in conventional multifamily or office, there's a real learning curve on the demand-side drivers.

The role is based at Scion's Chicago corporate office. Compensation is targeted between $105,000 and $125,000 base, plus discretionary bonus and a full benefits package including 401k matching, health, dental, vision, parental leave, and learning reimbursement.