Miles Education – Financial Controller – Student Housing Miles Education

The Corporate Institute; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 4,000,000 - 7,000,000; Full time

Job summary

The Corporate Institute in Bengaluru seeks an experienced Finance Controller to own end-to-end controllership for the Student Housing business, leading monthly, quarterly, and annual closes with strong governance and policy enforcement.

You will build scalable FP&A, model property economics, manage audits, partner with leadership, and drive cash flow, working capital, and performance analytics to accelerate growth.

Qualifications

• 7–13 years of experience in Finance, Controllership, FP&A, Business Finance, or a related function.
• Strong experience across financial controllership and FP&A.
• Excellent understanding of P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting.
• Strong financial modelling and scenario-analysis capabilities.
• Experience managing monthly/annual financial close, reconciliations, management reporting, and internal controls.
• Strong understanding of business drivers, unit economics, profitability, and cash conversion.
• Proven experience partnering with senior management and business leadership.
• Strong experience in team management and capability building.
• Advanced Excel and financial modelling skills.
• Ability to work with large datasets and translate financial and operational data into actionable business insights.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end financial controllership for the Student Housing business.
• Ensure timely and accurate monthly, quarterly, and annual financial closure.
• Establish and strengthen accounting policies, financial controls, reconciliations, and governance processes.
• Ensure accurate accounting of revenue, operating costs, receivables, payables, advances, deposits, and other balance-sheet items.
• Drive balance-sheet hygiene, working-capital discipline, and financial risk management.
• Coordinate with internal, statutory, and external auditors and ensure timely closure of audit observations.
• Identify control gaps, financial risks, process inefficiencies, and leakage points and implement corrective actions.
• Build scalable finance processes and infrastructure to support business growth.
• Own the annual budgeting, AOP, forecasting, and rolling forecast processes.
• Develop P&L, cash-flow, and balance-sheet forecasts and scenario-based financial models.

Skills

Finance

Controllership

FP&A

Budgeting

Forecasting

Financial modelling

Audit coordination

Stakeholder management

Advanced Excel

BI dashboards

Tools

Excel

BI dashboards

Job description

Key Responsibilities:

• Own end-to-end financial controllership for the Student Housing business.


• Ensure timely and accurate monthly, quarterly, and annual financial closure.


• Establish and strengthen accounting policies, financial controls, reconciliations, and governance processes.


• Ensure accurate accounting of revenue, operating costs, receivables, payables, advances, deposits, and other balance-sheet items.


• Drive balance-sheet hygiene, working-capital discipline, and financial risk management.


• Coordinate with internal, statutory, and external auditors and ensure timely closure of audit observations.


• Identify control gaps, financial risks, process inefficiencies, and leakage points and implement corrective actions.


• Build scalable finance processes and infrastructure to support business growth.


• Own the annual budgeting, AOP, forecasting, and rolling forecast processes.


• Develop P&L, cash-flow, and balance-sheet forecasts and scenario-based financial models.


• Perform actual-versus-budget, forecast, and prior-period analysis and clearly explain key variances.


• Build financial models for new properties, cities, partnerships, expansion opportunities, and investments.


• Evaluate new business opportunities and support management in assessing financial viability and returns.


• Translate financial and operational data into clear recommendations for leadership.


• Develop a strong understanding of student-housing unit economics and operating KPIs, including occupancy, bed inventory, booked beds, revenue per occupied bed, revenue per available bed, length of stay, customer acquisition cost, property EBITDA, contribution margin, property operating costs, rent per bed, utilities, payback, cancellation/refund rates, renewals, and collection efficiency.


• Analyze the drivers behind operational performance rather than simply reporting metrics.


• Identify key business levers affecting revenue, cost, profitability, and cash flow and recommend corrective actions.


• Build and maintain property-level and city-level financial models.


• Evaluate property and location profitability and determine break-even occupancy levels.


• Analyze fixed and variable costs and assess property contribution economics.


• Evaluate lease, revenue-share, and partnership models.


• Assess the financial impact of pricing, discounts, promotions, occupancy, rent, and operating-cost changes.


• Perform sensitivity and scenario analysis across occupancy, pricing, rent, operating costs, and customer acquisition.


• Identify underperforming properties and support turnaround plans.


• Provide financial analysis to support negotiations with landlords, property partners, and vendors.


• Develop a comprehensive management reporting and MIS framework covering business P&L, property-wise and city-wise performance, occupancy, revenue trends, budget versus actuals, forecasts, cash flow, working capital, collections, and business KPIs.


• Ensure reporting goes beyond historical performance to explain what happened, why it happened, what is likely to happen next, and what actions are required.


• Build dashboards and analytical tools that improve management visibility and decision-making.


• Partner closely with the CEO, CFO, business heads, operations, sales, property acquisition, and other functional leaders.


• Challenge business assumptions constructively and bring financial discipline into commercial decisions.


• Provide financial inputs for pricing, expansion, property acquisition, partnerships, investments, and growth initiatives.


• Help non-finance stakeholders understand the financial impact of their decisions while maintaining appropriate financial independence and controls.


• Own cash-flow forecasting, liquidity planning, and working-capital management.


• Improve collections, reduce receivable ageing, and monitor cash conversion.


• Monitor vendor payments, landlord payments, deposits, and advances.


• Identify working-capital inefficiencies and financial leakages.


• Develop short-term and long-term cash-flow models to support expansion plans.


• Drive finance process improvement and automation across reporting, reconciliations, MIS, and other repetitive activities.


• Partner with Technology and Product teams to improve financial data structures, reporting systems, and the finance data architecture.


• Establish a reliable single source of truth across financial and operational data.


• Standardize processes and continuously improve speed, accuracy, and efficiency.


• Build and manage a high-performing finance team across controllership, FP&A, and business finance.


• Set clear objectives, KPIs, and performance expectations.


• Coach and develop team members and build future finance leadership capability.


• Establish a culture of ownership, accountability, accuracy, and continuous improvement.

Required Skills & Experience:

• 7 – 13 years of experience in Finance, Controllership, FP&A, Business Finance, or a related function.


• Strong experience across financial controllership and FP&A.


• Excellent understanding of P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting.


• Strong financial modelling and scenario-analysis capabilities.


• Experience managing monthly/annual financial close, reconciliations, management reporting, and internal controls.


• Strong understanding of business drivers, unit economics, profitability, and cash conversion.


• Proven experience partnering with senior management and business leadership.


• Strong experience in team management and capability building.


• Advanced Excel and financial modelling skills.


• Ability to work with large datasets and translate financial and operational data into actionable business insights.


• Strong analytical, commercial, and problem-solving skills.


• Excellent communication, presentation, influencing, and stakeholder-management skills.


• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-growth environment and make decisions with incomplete information.

Strongly Preferred:

• Experience in Student Housing, Co-living, Hospitality, Real Estate, Property Management, PropTech, Leasing/Rental, Accommodation, or other occupancy-driven businesses.


• Experience with property-level P&L, occupancy economics, pricing, customer acquisition, collections, and location-level profitability.


• Exposure to finance automation, BI dashboards, and integration of financial and operational data.


• Experience supporting business expansion, property acquisition, partnerships, or investment decisions.

Leadership Attributes:

• Strong ownership and accountability with a bias toward action.


• Ability to challenge assumptions while building strong relationships with business leaders.


• High attention to detail without losing sight of commercial and strategic priorities.


• Ability to build scalable processes rather than rely on continuous firefighting.


• Strong judgment and ability to prioritize in a rapidly changing environment.


• Comfortable operating across numbers, business operations, and strategy.