Senior Writer

Cartwheel; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity allocation

Employer-sponsored health benefits

Generous PTO

Sick leave

401(k) with employer match

Annual educational stipend

Macbook

Job summary

Cartwheel is seeking an extraordinary writer to craft persuasive government-facing narratives that turn investments into outcomes for kids and families. You will shape proposals, briefs, and leave-behinds for state legislators and district leaders, translating complex data into compelling prose without sounding like marketing.

This role centers on storytelling, policy impact, and rigorous editorial standards, with a remote, salaried, full-time arrangement that supports education-focused mental

Qualifications

• 5+ years writing experience in journalism, freelancing, editing, or founder/executive roles with public-facing narratives.
• Ability to translate complex data/subject matter into accessible, compelling writing.
• Experience writing for senior decision-makers who are busy and skeptical.
• Sharp editorial judgment to identify missing elements and tighten drafts.
• Comfort with a range of formats from long-form to one-page briefs.
• Background in journalism or editorial roles or equivalent leadership writing.
• Ability to tailor content by audience and political/institutional context.
• Operates well in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments with minimal oversight.
• Genuine interest in youth mental health, education, or public policy.

Responsibilities

• Lead the writing on high-stakes proposals and RFP responses for statewide partnerships and large school districts.
• Structure narratives, draft content, and ensure clarity, accuracy, and responsiveness to local needs.
• Build and maintain a library of reusable proposal content (case studies, outcome narratives, model descriptions).
• Distill insights from schools, students, and families into concise, emotionally honest policy content.
• Develop state-specific impact narratives and write briefings, impact reports, and leave-behinds for legislators and agencies.
• Elevate editorial quality across government-facing content and ensure brand-consistent messaging for public officials.
• Collaborate with Government Partnerships, Sales, School Success, Marketing, and Clinical teams.
• Think strategically about message and audience for local priorities and politics.
• Note: experience in healthcare/edtech or mission-driven orgs is a plus.

Skills

Proposal writing

Storytelling

Executive communication

Writing experience

Editorial judgment

Public-facing writing

Audience tailoring

Deadline-driven

Youth mental health interest

Job 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. 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.

Role

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

Kids shouldn't 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 they’re excited to live. 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

About The Role

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 — 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 governor's desk.

The best candidate for this role may not have a background in government contracting. You’re someone who learned to write by writing — as a reporter, a freelance journalist, or in a role where you had to pitch and persuade, like running a company or a team. You know how to make complex ideas clear, how to build a narrative arc, and how to write for an audience that doesn’t share your vocabulary. You care about the craft and you want to point it at something that matters.

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. You’ll 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

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: What's working, what we're 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

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 Cartwheel's marketing team to ensure government-facing content is consistent with but distinct from our broader brand voice

Who You Are

• 5+ years of professional writing experience — as a journalist, freelance writer, editor, or in a role where writing and persuasion were central (e.g., founder, executive, or operator who wrote pitches, investor updates, or public-facing narratives) — with a strong portfolio that demonstrates clear, narrative-driven writing for a general audience
• 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 what's missing, what's bloated, and what's buried
• Comfort working across a wide range of formats, from a tightly structured long form piece to a narrative briefing to a one-page leave-behind
• Background in journalism, freelance writing, magazine writing, book editing, or editorial roles at a major publication — or equivalent experience as a founder, executive, or operator who did significant public-facing writing, pitching, or storytelling
• Ability to tailor written content by audience and political or institutional context (e.g., conservative vs. progressive, health agencies vs. education agencies)
• Operates well in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments with multiple concurrent deliverables; strong self-editing without heavy oversight
• Genuine interest in youth mental health, education, or public policy — you don't need deep domain expertise on day one, but you need to care enough to build it quickly

Nice to have

• Experience writing government-facing content: RFP responses, grant proposals, legislative briefings, policy documents, or equivalent
• 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 in a growth-stage company
• 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

WHY YOU’LL 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, You’ll Have

• Mission-oriented and inclusive colleagues who will go to bat for you
• 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

Cartwheel is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We embrace diverse backgrounds and perspectives and an inclusive work environment. We're 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 [e-mail]

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 [e-mail].