Occupation

Portfolio manager

Portfolio managers decide what a pool of money is invested in, within the mandate and risk limits agreed with clients or trustees. The role carries accountability for outcomes that are not fully controllable, and a large share of the work is explaining positioning and decisions to the people whose money it is.

Also known as: Fund manager · Investment manager · Asset manager · Investment fund manager

Saving keeps the career family and this occupation as your private target role on this device.

Occupation content

Part of Finance, accounting and insurance

A visual day in the work

What the work involves

  1. Set and apply an investment approach consistent with the mandate and its constraints.

  2. Decide allocations and place or approve trades within delegated authority.

  3. Monitor exposures against risk limits and rebalance when they drift.

  4. Challenge analyst research and decide what actually changes the portfolio.

  5. Report positioning, performance, and risk to clients or an investment committee.

  6. Work with compliance and operations so mandates and rules are observed.

Entry-route stepper

How people commonly enter

  1. A degree in finance, economics, mathematics, or a related quantitative field.

  2. Progression from investment analyst or trading roles within an asset manager.

  3. A professional investment management qualification taken alongside the role.

  4. A postgraduate finance degree combined with investment experience.

Typical training: Bachelor's degree

Licensing: Regulated in most jurisdictions. Confirm the current requirement with the regulator in your province, state, or country.

Work-context map

Typical work context

  • Desk based
  • High responsibility
  • Fast paced
  • Client sites

Desk based · High responsibility · Fast paced · Client sites

Related interests

  • Enterprising (leading)
  • Investigative (analytical)
  • Conventional (organizing)

Enterprising (leading) · Investigative (analytical) · Conventional (organizing)

Related aptitude preparation

These are preparation links only. They do not measure eligibility for this occupation and no score here qualifies or disqualifies anyone.

Skills to practise

Practice suites

Related learning

Family-level learning links for Finance, accounting and insurance.

Official sources

Labour-market facts such as pay and employment projections are not reproduced here. Open an official source below for figures, with its own geography and reference period.

Labour-market context (not part of exploration match)

This is broad family-level context for Finance, accounting and insurance in Canada, not a figure for Portfolio manager. It does not affect matching scores and is not an eligibility determination.

This is a broad Finance, accounting and insurance family. Explore the official profile for the chosen occupation; entry education and training can differ within the family.

Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period

Finance, accounting and insurance: education pathways

Some roles in Finance, accounting and insurance may be regulated. Confirm whether the specific role requires registration, certification, or a jurisdiction-specific licence.

Canada Job Bank Career Planning · Canada · Current official profile; consult source for its release period

Finance, accounting and insurance: licensing

Explore Canada's official sources

Find jobs

These are live, user-controlled searches on each source's own site for “ Portfolio manager”. Novus Learn does not fetch, store, or rank these results, and job availability never changes your exploration match score.

Report a change or missing information

Related occupations

Learn → Practise → Prepare → Apply

Continue from this occupation

Choose a learning action because it supports the work, not because a test score predicts career suitability.

When you get to the application

Novus Learn stops at preparation. These two Novus tools cover the paperwork, and like this site they run entirely in your browser. Nothing you upload to them leaves your device.

Report a change or missing information

Consent version 2026-08-21.1

Cookie preferences