WHAT DOES AN INVESTMENT OPERATIONS MANAGER DO?
Published: Nov 18, 2025 - The Investment Operations Manager oversees direct and fund investments while managing key investment documents, contractual obligations, and compliance requirements. This role involves controlling cash operations, including forecasting, liquidity management, transfers, and banking relationships, to ensure accurate, timely financial execution. The Manager also supports legal review processes, audit coordination, and cross-department projects to strengthen governance, risk management, and operational efficiency.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Investment Operations Manager
1. Investment Operations Manager Duties
- Data Ownership: Take full ownership of all portfolio, asset, benchmark, and index data within internal systems to ensure accuracy.
- Data Integrity Monitoring: Monitor data integrity continuously and resolve any data-related issues promptly.
- Fund Administration: Manage the creation and closure of funds within the firm’s systems.
- Pricing Management: Address pricing issues as they arise and implement improvements to enhance accuracy.
- Data Feed Oversight: Oversee data feeds from external suppliers to ensure smooth and reliable delivery.
- Third-Party Feed Resolution: Investigate and resolve any problems arising from third-party data feeds.
- Management Reporting: Produce management information related to service-level performance.
- SLA Reporting: Report on SLAs with third-party suppliers to maintain accountability.
- Vendor Relationship Management: Strengthen relationships with external providers to support ongoing data quality.
2. Investment Operations Manager Details
- Team Leadership: Lead, manage, and develop the Dealing, Settlement, and Governance teams to deliver high-quality and professional services to internal and external clients.
- Operational Oversight: Oversee all operational functions to ensure performance targets are consistently met.
- Performance Monitoring: Monitor productivity and efficiency to maintain strong operational outcomes.
- Service Delivery Management: Ensure service delivery meets agreed standards across all activities.
- Continuous Improvement: Drive continual improvement in customer service and overall quality.
- Process Excellence: Promote process excellence to enhance operational stability and effectiveness.
- Cost Management: Ensure costs remain appropriate while supporting service improvements.
- People Development: Develop and mentor direct reports to strengthen team capability.
- Talent Management: Champion talent management and maintain transparency across the team.
- Customer-Centric Culture: Embed a culture centered on customer-first principles, continuous improvement, and professionalism.
3. Investment Operations Manager Responsibilities
- Instruction Management: Acknowledge and act on investment instructions for Managed Accounts and Managed Funds within required trading cut-offs.
- Pre-Trade Compliance: Ensure pre-trade compliance is completed accurately before executing any instructions.
- Performance & Compliance Reporting: Generate periodic performance, compliance, and related reports on schedule.
- Reporting Delivery: Deliver reporting outputs that meet internal standards and regulatory expectations.
- Corporate Actions Monitoring: Monitor corporate action events affecting Managed Account holdings.
- Corporate Action Coordination: Coordinate with portfolio managers to determine the correct elections for each event.
- Election Submission: Submit corporate action election instructions to managed account platforms on time.
- Portfolio Performance Tracking: Track portfolio performance across platforms and model structures to ensure alignment with investment parameters.
- Compliance Issue Resolution: Identify and address any compliance issues that arise within portfolio guidelines.
- Query Management: Respond to internal and external queries related to Managed Accounts and Managed Funds.
- Change Management Support: Participate in change-management efforts by reviewing processes for efficiency and improved risk control.
- Client & Project Support: Support client onboarding activities, project initiatives, reporting enhancements, and system interface development.
4. Investment Operations Manager Job Summary
- Process Documentation: Document business processes and update monitoring documents linked to different projects, including drafting minutes.
- Change Management Support: Assist with the change management process for the Investment Platform by documenting roles and responsibilities and preparing training material.
- Process Centralisation: Assist with the centralisation of key investment business operational and administrative processes.
- Process Review: Review and rank processes, goals, and tasks.
- Process Optimisation: Optimise processes end-to-end.
- Onboarding Support: Provide support with investment onboarding operations.
- Issue Resolution: Monitor and resolve one-off problems as they arise within the different Investment Platform teams.
- Project Support: Support internal PWM stakeholders with the roll-out of key projects such as Risk and Compliance initiatives.
- Presentation Preparation: Prepare internal and external presentations for senior management.
- Planning & Analysis Improvement: Continually improve planning and analysis tools and processes by working closely with Investment Platform team heads and team members.
5. Investment Operations Manager Accountabilities
- Performance Reporting: Generate and ensure the accuracy of timely weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual performance reports for the portfolio, underlying entities, and individual managers in a central database.
- Ad Hoc Reporting: Work with the investment team to create ad hoc and pro-forma portfolio reports.
- Data Input Management: Build and own the process of investment data input by ensuring data quality, completeness, and accuracy.
- Performance Data Entry: Input performance data, including estimates, cash flows, and valuations.
- Portfolio Data Oversight: Input and oversee the accuracy of underlying portfolio positions and exposures sourced from direct holdings, manager reports, 13F filings, and third-party data vendors.
- Liquidity Tracking: Track liquidity terms for investments.
- Performance Reconciliation: Reconcile performance reports with the general ledger and serve as the primary contact for related inquiries between the investment team and finance.
- Cash Reconciliation: Reconcile daily cash balances with capital calls, distributions, stock sales, gifts, and other flows.
- Procedure Documentation: Develop and maintain procedural documentation for investment accounting processes.
- Reporting Consistency: Ensure consistency, transparency, and reliability across all investment reporting responsibilities.
6. Investment Operations Manager Functions
- Trade Settlement Management: Ensure trade affirmation and settlement process deadlines are met and resolve settlement issues with traders, counterparties, and custodians.
- Corporate Actions Analysis: Process corporate actions and perform company research to conduct analysis.
- Trade Lifecycle Coordination: Interact with the Investment team, execution brokers, and prime brokers throughout the trade life cycle.
- Security Maintenance: Maintain and set up securities and update valuations.
- Task Management: Ensure timely completion of tasks and proactively follow up on pending matters.
- Documentation Support: Assist in the completion of documentation relating to new accounts, service provider agreements, private placements, and related items.
- Trading Systems Knowledge: Maintain working knowledge of Polar’s trading system, trading counterparties, approved markets and security types, and clearing counterparties, including methods for approving and monitoring such counterparties.
- Relationship Management: Build and maintain professional relationships with internal and external parties.
7. Investment Operations Manager Job Description
- Transaction Operations: Ensure efficient and accurate transaction execution, settlement, valuation, and corporate actions processing.
- Treasury Support: Provide the Treasury function with timely cash flow information and forecasts.
- Stakeholder Coordination: Coordinate and manage effective relationships with internal asset management, legal, and risk management functions, and external service providers of custody, banking, and tax advisory services.
- Data Management: Ensure investment management and performance management systems are kept up to date through timely and accurate input, upload, and verification of source data feeds.
- Research & Process Improvement: Provide research and analysis, and actively seek to reduce transaction costs and improve the efficiency and quality of processes and reporting through integration and innovation.
- Performance Support: Assist in the month-end performance calculation process.
- Planning Collaboration: Interact closely with the investment management functions to support planning initiatives and to develop and implement strategic business and operational plans.
- Financial Oversight: Oversee financials, compliance, and taxation of the company.
- Service Delivery Support: Assist the Head in ensuring that the department consistently delivers timely and high-quality service to all relevant stakeholders.
8. Investment Operations Manager Overview
- Transaction Operations: Ensure efficient and accurate transaction execution, settlement, valuation, and corporate actions processing.
- Treasury Support: Provide the Treasury function with timely cash flow information and forecasts.
- Stakeholder Coordination: Coordinate and manage effective relationships with internal asset management, legal, and risk management functions, as well as external service providers of custody, banking, and tax advisory services.
- Data Management: Ensure investment management and performance management systems are kept up to date through timely and accurate input, upload, and verification of source data feeds.
- Research & Process Improvement: Provide research and analysis, and actively seek to reduce transaction costs and improve the efficiency and quality of processes and reporting through integration and innovation.
- Performance Support: Assist in the month-end performance calculation process.
- Planning Collaboration: Interact closely with investment management functions to support planning initiatives and to develop and implement strategic business and operational plans.
- Financial Oversight: Oversee financials, compliance, and taxation of the company.
- Service Delivery Support: Assist the department head in ensuring that the department consistently delivers timely and high-quality service to all relevant stakeholders.
9. Investment Operations Manager Details and Accountabilities
- Investment Operations Leadership: Lead the team to perform day-to-day investment operations for relevant retirement and regional funds.
- Compliance Oversight: Review and sign off on investment compliance monitoring performed by the team, including position reconciliation, equity exposure monitoring, FX exposure monitoring, and fund expense settlement.
- Regulatory Reporting Review: Review statutory filing, including required appendices, as well as other regulatory reporting prepared by the team.
- Audit Coordination: Liaise with external and internal auditors and review financial statements for the funds.
- Regulatory Query Management: Handle queries from regulators and authorities.
- Service Provider Management: Manage relationships with external service providers such as the Fund Administrator, Custodian, and Investment Manager, and conduct ongoing performance monitoring.
- Fund Analytics: Monitor and perform analytical reviews on cash flow, AUM, FER, and other calculation metrics for the funds.
- Process Improvement: Regularly review operational and reporting processes for the funds and contribute to process transformation and improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency.
- Regulatory Monitoring: Stay updated on regulatory developments and assess their impact.
- Project Support: Support automation, new fund launches, fund restructuring, and other ad-hoc projects.
10. Senior Investment Operations Manager Tasks
- Team Leadership: Provide leadership, coaching, and guidance to junior team members.
- Instruction Management: Prepare, review, and authorise various instructions timely and accurately to the Trustee or Custodian, financial institutions, or counterparties for trade settlement, fund transfer, foreign exchange, hedging, corporate actions, pricing, valuation matters, expenses, and related activities.
- Transaction Oversight: Manage and monitor various types of transactions, including Money Market Placement, Equity and Fixed Income trades, FX and hedging transactions, and other relevant activities, to ensure timely and accurate settlement.
- Valuation Reporting: Prepare and review valuation reports for segregated funds for reporting or tax computation purposes.
- Fund Reporting: Prepare, coordinate, and submit Fund Statistic reports, peer rankings, fund performance data, and fund fact sheets.
- Reconciliation Management: Review, investigate, and resolve discrepancies and reconciliation issues or breaks, including appropriate reporting and escalation.
- Corporate Actions Coordination: Coordinate and monitor corporate action events by notifying portfolio managers and sending instructions to internal teams and custodians or trustees.
- System Updates: Update information in the system.
- Rebalancing Operations: Perform asset allocation rebalancing of feeder funds or funds of funds, including subscription or redemption, FX booking, and rebate processing.
- Onboarding Oversight: Oversee account and fund onboarding.
- Account & Fund Setup: Prepare, monitor, and provide instructions for account opening or new fund setup, KYC processes, accruals of fund expenses, settlement of expenses, and creation or cancellation of amounts or units.
11. Investment Operations Manager Roles
- Data Integrity Management: Maintain accuracy and integrity of transactional data, ensuring that all positions and market value data used by fund managers and other internal or external clients and functions are of high quality.
- Investment Data Oversight: Oversee investment data quality across multiple investment systems.
- Trade Management: Oversee trade management, including resolution of trade matching issues and settlement failures.
- Bespoke Trading Support: Support bespoke trading requirements such as placings, IPOs, pre-funding, and trade assistance.
- Vendor Oversight: Oversee and manage third-party outsourced service providers’ delivery in line with agreed service level agreements and as part of a global team.
- Issue Management: Manage, liaise, and escalate investment operations issues.
- Change Request Management: Create and submit operational change requests to resolve systematic trade, position, or data issues.
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Build and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external functions, including third-party service providers, information technology, investments, dealing, data management, operational control, and transitions.
- Data Quality Reporting: Produce management information to report data quality and support improvements in data cleanliness.
- Team Management: Manage the regional investment operations team, including objective setting and performance appraisals.
12. Investment Operations Manager Additional Details
- Due Diligence Management: Manage on-site and off-site due diligence of prospective and existing external investment managers.
- Document Review: Review due diligence materials such as audited financial statements, regulatory filings, fund documents, policies and procedures, valuation methodologies, and background check findings.
- Manager Engagement: Participate in and lead calls and in-person meetings with senior investment manager personnel, service providers, and related parties.
- Operational Evaluation: Evaluate the overall quality of systems, controls, infrastructure, and personnel to identify issues relevant to the investment decision.
- Operational Risk Assessment: Apply knowledge and experience across a wide variety of alternative investment managers and operating environments to assess operational risks and identify potential concerns.
- Findings Presentation: Document and present findings from each review, highlighting strengths and providing specific advice and recommendations based on industry best practices.
- Ongoing Monitoring: Perform regular monitoring of ongoing investments in accordance with established policies.
- External Partner Oversight: Engage and oversee outside partners, including background check providers and due diligence research consultants, and incorporate their work into overall risk analysis.
- Project Leadership: Lead and own ad hoc projects and reviews, including internal compliance initiatives.
- Team Instruction: Instruct analysts and administrative professionals under the supervision of senior leadership.
- Judgment & Escalation: Exercise strong judgment in prioritizing, evaluating, and sharing information and determining issues requiring escalation.
- Professional Representation: Represent the investment team in a professional and competent manner to all constituencies while supporting broader organizational goals.
- Travel Coordination: Travel regularly both domestically and internationally, primarily to visit investment managers and counterparties associated with the portfolio.
- Relationship Building: Communicate and establish strong working relationships with investment manager personnel.
- Market Awareness: Keep abreast of market developments, industry trends, and regulatory matters that may impact investment managers or due diligence procedures.
13. Investment Operations Manager Essential Functions
- Investment Oversight: Provide oversight of direct and fund investments.
- Document Management: Manage the investment document repository, including stock purchase agreements, subscription agreements, limited partnership agreements, management rights letters, and other key investment documents.
- Contract & Compliance Administration: Provide contract and compliance administration for the investment team, including tracking contractual obligations and follow-up items.
- Reporting Development: Create standardized, structured reports with the investment team for each investment, including review of key areas of operations, trade processes, business risk management, compliance, and business continuity planning.
- Cash Balance Control: Analyze, review, and control cash balances for the investment function.
- Liquidity Management: Facilitate and ensure sufficient liquidity in bank accounts and execute daily movement of cash across all accounts to meet obligations.
- Funds Transfer Authorization: Review and authorize monthly intercompany transfers and daily electronic funds transfers.
- Banking Operations Oversight: Oversee and facilitate banking operations and make recommendations on banking services and providers, including managing banking relationships, negotiating fees, credits, and rates, managing account structure, and maintaining account documentation.
- Cash Forecasting: Prepare cash forecasts and create cash forecasting models to manage the timing of cash flows.
- Legal Support: Assist legal counsel with legal review of investment contracts and associated documentation, review subscription agreements and due diligence questionnaires, and obtain contract reviews.
- Compliance Management: Manage the compliance system with senior leadership, review and evaluate monthly compliance monitoring, remedy non-compliance, and update treasury leadership on issues.
- Invoice Review: Review invoices and compare with contract terms to ensure accuracy before payment.
- Audit Support: Act as liaison and assist internal and external auditors during the annual audit related to cash and investments, including working with the investment team to gather and provide required information.
- Cross-Department Collaboration: Partner with other department leaders on projects.