Senior Writer (Government Partnerships)

Cartwheel•Cambridge, MA

12h•$150,000 - $170,000•Remote

About The Position

Cartwheel is the nation's largest mental health provider working with K-12 schools — more than 350 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 probably didn't grow up in government contracting. You're 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 doesn't share your vocabulary. You care about the craft and you want to point it at something that matters.

Requirements

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 what's missing, what's bloated, and what's 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 don't need deep domain expertise on day one, but you need to care enough to build it quickly

Nice To Haves

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 wasn't your primary career
Familiarity with K-12 education and/or health care
Experience working in or alongside mission-driven organizations and/or government

Responsibilities

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
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
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