[Hiring] Senior Writer @Cartwheel

Role Description

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. With 1 in 5 young people struggling with mental health, schools are facing a downward spiral in student crises and staff burnout.

Cartwheel is an early-stage startup building technology-enabled mental health services that put schools at the center. We see our role as supporting both families and the on-campus school staff who see kids every day. This means:

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

If you join Cartwheel, you’ll help make this vision a reality for millions of students across the country. We’re backed by top investors including Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, Reach Capital, and A Street Ventures, and we're looking for mission-driven teammates to join our team.

LOCATION: Remote

START DATE: September 2026

ROLE TYPE: Salaried W2, Full-Time

COMPENSATION: Competitive cash compensation + meaningful equity

Cartwheel is the nation's largest mental health provider working with K-12 schools — more than 375 districts across 16 states and growing fast. In 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.

We're 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. You'll take the messy, complicated reality of what it looks like to deliver mental health care inside schools 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 governor's desk.

What You’ll Do

• Write proposals that win
• Lead the writing on high-stakes proposals and RFP responses for statewide partnerships and large school districts.
• Work with Government Partnerships, Sales, School Success, Marketing, and Clinical teams to gather the substance and translate it into persuasive, clear prose.
• Build and maintain a library of reusable proposal content that gets stronger over time.
• Distill insights and stories from schools, students, and families into concise, emotionally honest content.
• Develop state-specific impact narratives: What's working, what we're learning, and what the data says.
• Write briefings, impact reports, and leave-behinds for legislators, governors' offices, and state agencies.
• Serve as an editorial quality bar across government-facing content.
• Think strategically about message and audience based on local priorities and politics.
• Collaborate with Cartwheel's marketing team to ensure government-facing content is consistent with our broader brand voice.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional writing experience — as a journalist, freelance writer, editor, or in a role where writing and persuasion were central.
• Demonstrated ability to take complex, technical, or data-heavy subject matter and make it accessible and compelling.
• Experience writing for or communicating with senior decision-makers.
• Sharp editorial judgment.
• Comfort working across a wide range of formats.
• Background in journalism, freelance writing, magazine writing, or editorial roles.
• Ability to tailor written content by audience and political or institutional context.
• Operates well in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments.
• Genuine interest in youth mental health, education, or public policy.

Nice to Have

• Experience writing government-facing content.
• Familiarity with K–12 education, school-based mental health, or pediatric behavioral health.
• Familiarity with state-level Medicaid, RHTP, or education funding mechanisms.
• Experience supporting government affairs, public affairs, or policy teams.
• Experience building or managing a content or asset library for a sales or partnerships team.
• Prior work in healthcare technology, edtech, or mission-driven organizations.

Benefits

• Mission-oriented and inclusive colleagues.
• Meaningful equity ownership stake in Cartwheel.
• Employer-sponsored PPO medical, vision, dental and orthodontia coverage.
• Generous PTO, including company-wide closure the last week of December.
• Sick leave.
• 401(k) with employer match.
• Annual educational stipend.
• Macbook.