Head of Government Affairs

Join Cartwheel to help tackle the student mental health crisis!

Cartwheel is a Series B, venture-backed startup 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 student’s life 

We believe 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 us.

ABOUT THE ROLE

In 3 years, Cartwheel has grown to serve more than 325 school districts in 16 states, making us the nation’s largest mental health provider that collaborates with K-12 schools. With billions of dollars in new state and federal investments in youth mental health coming in 2026, including through the Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), we are supplementing our district-level sales motion with statewide partnerships with Governor’s offices, education departments, and health agencies.

As the leader of our Government Relations team, you’ll build a scalable government business function across 20-30 states that enables Cartwheel to partner with thousands of school districts and serve millions of parents and students. 

LOCATION: Remote with ability to travel, particularly during peak seasons (e.g., legislative session and pre-session engagement). 

COMPENSATION:

START DATE: January 2026

 

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Build and lead a high-performing Government Relations team

• Establish and scale a Government Relations team of 2-3 territorial leads, fostering a culture of strategic thinking, rigorous execution, and collaboration
• Develop playbooks and processes that enable the team to manage 10-20 active lobbying engagements while monitoring emerging opportunities across additional states
• Build a continuous training mechanism to ensure Leads are always refining their messaging, strategy, and ways of working
• Manage government relations budget, including lobbyist contracts and team expenses, with clear ROI tracking
• Report regularly to executive leadership on state pipeline, contract status, and forecasted revenue
• Collaborate with the marketing and sales teams to consistently communicate with identified government leaders
• Develop our team’s reputation as the most organized, thoughtful, and strategic partner our state contacts have ever worked with

Identify and secure state-level funding and contracts

• Execute on two primary strategies: (1) Securing state funding that schools can use to procure Cartwheel, and (2) Securing direct statewide contracts that make Cartwheel the sole vendor available to districts at no cost
• Example of #1 is Georgia HB68 school mental health grant funding that gives $20,000 to each middle and high school to contract for mental health services
• Example of #2 is our partnership in Arizona with the AZ Department of Education to serve all rural school districts and charter schools
• Identify target states for prioritization and develop a winning strategy for every state, including annual goals, stakeholder maps, state-specific messaging, milestones, and critical path
• Build relationships with governors' offices, legislators, education and health agencies, and key statewide organizations (e.g., superintendents associations, state PTAs)
• Represent the company with key associations such as NGA, DGA, RGA, and other government-sector networks
• Tailor messaging to each state's context and priorities, continuously refining based on feedback from the field
• Manage external lobbyists, ensuring clear objectives, messaging, and accountability
• Track funding and legislative opportunities, RFPs, and policy discussions to ensure Cartwheel is a step ahead of any important developments

Maintain and expand existing state relationships

• Partner with Sales and Marketing to ensure seamless handoff once state contracts or funding are secured. Note: this may include partnership across multiple company operating units to ensure consistent communication in defense of existing contracts
• Steward existing statewide partnerships and funding programs, ensuring compliance, strong relationships, and contract renewals
• Collaborate with Product, Clinical, and Customer Success teams to ensure Cartwheel delivers the impact required to renew and expand contracts year-over-year
• Proactively communicate with state stakeholders to demonstrate impact and identify expansion opportunities
• Manage budget, compliance obligations, lobbying registrations, and ethical standards across all jurisdictions.

WHO YOU ARE

• 10+ years building and scaling government relations functions in healthcare or education, with a track record securing state-level contracts worth $2M+ annually
• Exceptional ability to cultivate trust-based relationships with diverse stakeholders including elected officials, agency administrators, and advocacy organizations
• Clear, concise written and verbal communicator with the ability to identify the necessary differences for government communications
• Ability to manage a complex, multi-state portfolio with long sales cycles (12-24+ months)
• Track record successfully operating in both Republican-led and Democrat-led states and across rural and urban geographies 
• Track record building and coaching high-performing Government Relations teams and managing external lobbyists, including directing strategy, ensuring rigorous execution, and measuring performance
• Experience working in CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce, Gong), project management tools, and Excel/PowerPoint
• Enthusiasm for building a new function from the ground up in a startup environment
• Passionate about our mission to support student mental health

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
• Competitive compensation and benefits
• Meaningful equity ownership stake in Cartwheel
• Generous PPO medical, vision, and dental coverage
• Unlimited/flexible PTO plus federal holidays
• Paid parental leave
• 401K with employer match