Community Manager

Student housing community management sits in its own category within property management. The operational calendar runs on an academic year, not a calendar year, and that shapes everything from leasing velocity to the annual turn. At Lark Gainesville, a student living community near the University of Florida, Scion is looking for a General Manager who can handle the full scope of that cycle with real competence.

What This Role Actually Covers

This is a full-operation leadership position. You're responsible for financial performance, physical plant, staffing, and the resident experience simultaneously. On the financial side, that means owning the annual budget process, managing NOI through expense control and revenue targets, handling variance reporting, and working with regional leadership on capex approvals. You're not handing off vendor bids or budget forecasting to someone else. You own those processes and coordinate with partner departments to execute them.

Facilities accountability here includes monthly property walks with scored assessments, quarterly apartment inspections, permit compliance, and identifying capital improvement needs before they become emergencies. You'll work directly with the Facilities and Capital department on project approval and execution, and you're expected to obtain competitive bids on work that exceeds the property's pre-approved threshold.

Staffing is a hands-on responsibility as well. You'll partner with Talent Acquisition and HR through Greenhouse for hiring, coordinate training and development through Scion's Learning and Development team, and manage scheduling including after-hours on-call coverage where you serve as primary responder.

The Annual Turn Is Central to This Role

At a student housing property, the summer turn is one of the most operationally demanding periods of the year. At Lark Gainesville, that means coordinating make-ready timelines across a high unit count, managing punch lists with vendors and your facilities team, tracking progress through Turnable, and staying hands-on throughout. That last point is worth emphasizing: this role explicitly includes physical tasks during turn, moving furniture, helping with punches, managing trash volume, and cleaning units alongside the team. Candidates who expect to manage the turn from a desk will find this role a poor fit.

The University of Florida's enrollment scale and the density of purpose-built student housing in Gainesville means the competitive market moves quickly during lease-up season. Leasing velocity, gain to lease, and concession management are metrics you'll be accountable for, and the market context makes those metrics genuinely meaningful.

Experience and Tools Required

• At least three years managing a residential community with direct oversight of a team of three or more
• Proficiency in property management systems, with Entrata preferred
• Comfort working across multiple platforms: Vena for budgeting, ADP for payroll and scheduling, Qualtrics for experience data, ClickUp for project management, and Lattice for performance tracking
• Strong written and verbal communication, conflict management, and vendor management skills
• A customer-centric approach that extends to both residents and staff

Candidates who stand out in this type of role tend to have experience managing the full turn cycle at a property with significant unit count, not just leasing or maintenance coordination in isolation. The ability to read financial reports, act on them quickly, and communicate clearly with a regional team is what separates solid candidates from strong ones here. Scion offers a defined career path with internal development resources, which makes this a reasonable next step for someone currently in an Assistant Manager role who's ready to take on full P&L ownership.