Senior Writer (Government Partnerships)

Join Cartwheel to help tackle the student mental health crisis.

Kids spend most of their days in the classroom. And teachers and staff who play a vital role in their development are often the first to notice when something is off. But with 1 in 5 young people struggling with mental health schools are getting crushed by a downward spiral in student crises and staff burnout.

With large increases in state and federal funding for healthcare innovation schools are reimagining what mental health support can look like for their students staff and families.

Cartwheel is an early-stage company building a new kind of mental health program for kids that puts schools at the center. We see our role as supporting school staff who see kids every single day. Instead of going around them we collaborate with them. This means:

• Earlier intervention
• Higher student and family engagement in care
• Better coordination among the trusted adults in a students life

Kids shouldnt just aspire to get out of bed and drag themselves to class. They should be able to experience joy. They deserve to envision and build a life theyre excited to live. If you join Cartwheel youll help make this vision a reality for millions of students across the country. Were backed by top investors including Menlo Ventures Reach Capital General Catalyst BoxGroup and Able Partners and were looking for mission-driven teammates to join our team.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Cartwheel is the nations largest mental health provider working with K-12 schools more than 350 districts across 16 states and growing 2026 billions of dollars in new state and federal funding will reshape how America invests in youth mental health and Cartwheel is at the center of that conversation.

Were looking for an extraordinary writer to help us make the case to governors legislators agency leaders and school district decision-makers that Cartwheel is the partner that turns those investments into real outcomes for kids and families.

This is not a grant writing role. This is a storytelling and persuasion role. Youll take the messy complicated reality of what it looks like to deliver mental health care inside schools the data the policy constraints the clinical outcomes the parent who finally got her kid help and turn it into writing that moves people to act. The audiences range from state legislators to cabinet secretaries and the work ranges from a polished proposal responding to a statewide RFP to a two-page briefing that lands on a governors desk.

The best candidate for this role probably didnt grow up in government contracting. Youre someone who learned to write by writing in a newsroom at a magazine in a publishing house and you know how to make complex ideas clear how to build a narrative arc and how to write for an audience that doesnt share your vocabulary. You care about the craft and you want to point it at something that matters.

Role type:W2 Full-Time Salaried position
Salary range:$150000 $170000 plus competitive equity package
Location:Remote
Target Start:June 2026

WHAT YOULL DO

Influence state and local policymakers

• Distill insights and stories from schools students and families into concise emotionally honest content that can inform policy conversations without reading like marketing
• Develop state-specific impact narratives: Whats working what were learning and what the data says told through the lens of the families and schools we serve
• Write briefings impact reports and leave-behinds for legislators governors offices state agencies the materials that frame how officials understand what Cartwheel does and why it matters

Write proposals that win

• Lead the writing on high-stakes proposals and RFP responses for statewide partnerships and large school districts. Youll structure the narrative draft content and ensure the final product is clear compelling and responsive to local needs
• Work with Government Partnerships Sales School Success Marketing and Clinical teams to gather the substance outcomes data implementation plans clinical model details and translate it into persuasive clear prose
• Build and maintain a library of reusable proposal content (case studies outcome narratives model descriptions) that gets stronger over time

Elevate the quality of everything we put in front of government audiences

• Serve as an editorial quality bar across government-facing content reviewing and tightening work from across the team so that everything Cartwheel sends to a public official reflects the seriousness of the work
• Think strategically about message and audience based on local priorities and politics
• Collaborate with Cartwheels marketing team to ensure government-facing content is consistent with but distinct from our broader brand voice

WHO YOU ARE

Must have

• 7 years of professional writing experience with a strong portfolio that demonstrates clear narrative-driven writing for a general audience journalism longform editorial or similar backgrounds strongly preferred
• Demonstrated ability to take complex technical or data-heavy subject matter and make it accessible and compelling without dumbing it down
• Experience writing for or communicating with senior decision-makers who are busy skeptical and not experts in your subject area
• Sharp editorial judgment: You can look at a 30-page proposal draft and see whats missing whats bloated and whats buried
• Comfort working across a wide range of formats from a tightly structured RFP response to a narrative briefing to a one-page leave-behind
• Genuine interest in youth mental health education or public policy you dont need deep domain expertise on day one but you need to care enough to build it quickly

Nice to have

• Background in journalism magazine writing book editing or editorial roles at a major publication
• Experience writing proposals policy briefs or persuasive materials for government audiences even if that wasnt your primary career
• Familiarity with K-12 education and/or health care
• Experience working in or alongside mission-driven organizations and/or government

WHY YOULL LOVE CARTWHEEL

Our hope is that Cartwheel will be your best career decision! In addition to tackling one of the biggest challenges of our time at a company well-positioned to do so youll have:

• Mission-oriented and inclusive colleagues who will go to bat for you
• Employer-sponsored PPO medical vision and dental coverage
• Generous PTO including company-wide closure the last week of December
• Meaningful equity ownership stake in Cartwheel
• 401(k) with employer match
• Annual educational stipend
• Macbook

Cartwheel is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We embrace diverse backgrounds and perspectives and an inclusive work environment. Were committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race color religion ancestry national origin gender sexual orientation disability status or veteran status.

We participate in E-Verify. Please be prepared to provide acceptable documentation to verify your identity and work authorization

Cartwheel uses AI-assisted tools to support our hiring process. This may include tools that help organize and surface applications for recruiter review AI-powered candidate communications and scheduling interview recording and documentation and an AI chat tool available to candidates during the process. All hiring decisions are made by Cartwheel recruiters and hiring managers. No candidate is selected or eliminated from consideration solely by an automated system. All hiring decisions are made by humans. If you have questions about how AI is used in our process or would like to request an alternative review method please contact

Note: Please do not contact our Care Provider or Patient Services lines regarding job postings or application status. These teams support our patients and families and are not involved in the hiring process. For all recruitment-related questions please email .