Senior Leasing Specialist

Position Brief – Senior Leasing Specialist
Optima
Luxury Leasing Meets Elevated Living

At Optima, leasing is not simply transactional — it is a core driver of community performance, resident satisfaction, and brand reputation. The Senior Leasing Specialist role is designed for experienced leasing professionals who bring consistency, judgment, and polish to stabilized and maturing luxury communities.

This role is built for continued, sustained excellence in leasing performance. It centers on maintaining strong occupancy, driving renewals, elevating the resident experience, and setting the standard for professional leasing execution. Senior Leasing Specialists operate as trusted front‑line leaders and high‑performing individual contributors who stabilize performance, mentor others through example, and reinforce Optima’s service and brand expectations.

About Optima
Optima is a design-driven real estate development firm rooted in the modernist tradition with offices in Illinois and Arizona. For more than 40 years, we have been developing, designing, building, and managing striking urban and suburban luxury residential communities. From the beginning, we aimed to reinvent housing by integrating the functions involved in new construction within one company. We control and execute every aspect of the process in-house – development, architecture, construction, sales, and management – for a dynamic system that offers greater focus and fluidity. We are committed to delivering extraordinary living through design, innovation, sustainability, and management.

What You’ll Do
Deliver Consistent Leasing Performance

• Serve as a senior individual contributor responsible for sustaining strong occupancy levels in stabilized and near‑stabilized luxury communities.
• Convert qualified prospect traffic into executed leases through confident presentations, disciplined follow‑up, and professional closing techniques.
• Support pricing integrity and availability accuracy by maintaining strong product, floor plan, and market knowledge.
• Directly contribute to property‑level occupancy, traffic‑to‑lease conversion, and renewal performance as a core expectation of the role.
• Be accountable for meeting leasing and occupancy targets by consistently executing daily leasing activities, tracking progress, and taking ownership of outcomes.

Own the Full Prospect‑to‑Resident Lifecycle

• Lead discovery-based tours and tailored presentations that connect prospects to Optima’s design, services, and lifestyle by asking open-ended questions, actively listening and addressing their needs.

• Manage the leasing process end‑to‑end, from initial inquiry through application coordination, lease execution, and move‑in readiness.
• Ensure a seamless, polished experience across all prospect and resident touchpoints, including in‑person, phone, email, and digital interactions.
• Build and maintain strong prospect relationships through timely, thoughtful follow-up and ongoing engagement that reflects Optima’s elevated service standards.
• Cultivate referral and local network relationships (brokers, corporate partners, and community stakeholders) to support a steady pipeline of qualified traffic.

• Conduct high-impact, sales-driven tours that highlight the value and unique aspects of Optima's spaces while consistently reinforcing differentiators, anticipating and confidently addressing questions and objections, and offering thoughtful alternatives to advance prospects through the leasing process.

• Close throughout the tour and document detailed CRM notes to ensure continuity, personalized follow-up, and team execution.

Strengthen Resident Relationships and Retention

• Serve as a visible and professional on‑site presence, reinforcing Optima’s service standards and resident expectations.
• Partner closely with on‑site operations and service teams to ensure alignment between leasing commitments and resident experience delivery.

Act as a Senior Leasing Resource and Example‑Setter

• Model best‑in‑class leasing behaviors, professionalism, and customer engagement for leasing peers.
• Informally support and guide newer leasing team members through daily collaboration and example‑based coaching.
• Share market insight, prospect feedback, and competitive observations with leadership to support informed decision‑making.

Market Awareness and Competitive Positioning

• Conduct regular market surveys and shop competing properties to understand pricing trends, concessions, and competitive positioning.
• Bring insights from the field to inform leasing strategy, tour approach, and prospect conversations.

Operate with Discipline, Accountability, and Systems Rigor

• Maintain accurate, real‑time documentation of all prospect and resident interactions within CRM and leasing platforms, including individualized prospect communication plans so any team member can step in seamlessly.

• Manage personal activity, follow‑up cadence, and leasing pipeline with consistency and organization, executing concierge-level follow-up after tours through multiple, varied touchpoints and curated communication.

• Uphold high standards for written communication, responsiveness, attention to detail, and follow‑through.

• Maintain high-touch applicant engagement from application through move-in by providing clear status updates, driving next steps to completion, and keeping applicants excited and connected to the community to reduce cancellations.
• Proactively share significant prospect updates with the leasing team to preserve a consistent, elevated experience.

Who You Are

• Experienced and performance‑driven: You understand that success in stabilized communities is measured by sustained occupancy, renewals, conversion, and resident satisfaction.
• Polished and professional: You communicate with confidence, warmth, and credibility in all interactions with prospects, residents, and internal partners.
• Relationship-builder: You earn trust quickly and sustain it—creating strong connections with prospects, residents, and internal partners that translate into retention and reputation.
• Disciplined and organized: You manage multiple priorities while maintaining accuracy, consistency, and accountability.
• System‑savvy: You operate comfortably and consistently within CRM and leasing systems, recognizing that clean data and timely follow‑up drive performance.
• Trusted team presence: You bring maturity, judgment, and calm to the leasing office, elevating standards through your approach rather than formal authority.
• Solutions-oriented and business-minded: You balance a concierge-level experience with sound business decisions—listening with empathy, communicating policies clearly, offering alternatives when possible, and reinforcing Optima’s value even when you can’t say “yes” to every request.
• Brand‑aligned: You represent Optima with professionalism at every interaction, reinforcing our design‑forward, service‑oriented culture.

Experience & Qualifications

• 5+ years of leasing, sales, or high touch customer service experience required.
• Experience in luxury multifamily, hospitality, or lifestyle driven residential environments is strongly preferred.
• Proven success in stabilized or high performing communities; lease up experience is a plus but not required.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred; high school diploma required.
• Proficiency in CRM and leasing platforms required; familiarity with Yardi Voyager 7 and RentCafe is a plus.

Why Optima
At Optima, we believe benefits should be meaningful, competitive, and supportive of your whole life. As a Lease-Up Specialist, you’ll enjoy:

• Base Pay: $24-28/hour + commission and additional significant lease-up and occupancy milestone incentives tied to performance and goal achievement
• 100% Company-Paid Medical Plan Option
• 401k with Employer Match
• Paid Parental Leave
• Paid Time Off & Holidays
• A beautiful, design-forward workplace and dynamic team environment

At Optima, we believe meaningful work begins with meaningful people. Our teams are diverse, passionate, and united by a shared belief in excellence, innovation, and care. You’ll be part of a culture where individuality is valued and everyone plays a role in creating extraordinary living.

Optima does not accept unsolicited resumes from individual recruiters or third-party recruiting agencies in response to job postings. No fee will be paid to third parties who submit unsolicited candidates directly to Optima team members or the Optima people experience team. No placement fees will be paid to any 3rd party unless such a request has been made by the Optima people experience team.