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Government Relations Executive - South, Great Plains, Mountain West

Remote

Join Cartwheel to help tackle the student mental health crisis. 

Cartwheel is the trusted mental health partner to K12 schools, students, and families. In 3 years, Cartwheel has become the nation's largest provider of mental health services in collaboration with schools, serving more than 325 school districts in 16 states.  We see our role as partnering with parents and school staff to ensure:
  • Earlier intervention
  • Higher student and family engagement in care
  • Better coordination among the trusted adults in a student’s life
  • Improved health and educational outcomes
  • Cost-effective and affordable care
Coming off of a strong Series B fundraise, and backed by top investors including A Street Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Reach Capital, and General Catalyst, Cartwheel is expanding significantly in 2026 to serve hundreds more school districts and hundreds of thousands of students and families.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

LOCATION: Remote with ability to travel 2x a month including weekly during peak seasons (e.g., legislative session). Preference for South, Great Plains, or Mountain West home base.

START DATE: January 2026

ABOUT THE ROLE

As state and federal leaders invest billions of dollars in youth mental health, we are supplementing our district-level sales motion with statewide partnerships with Governor’s offices, education departments, and health agencies. As a Government Relations Executive, you’ll own a portfolio of 5-10 states and manage new sales, expansions, and renewals of government business in those states, helping Cartwheel serve hundreds of thousands more students and families.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Own the strategy and execution for 5-10 states

  • Develop and execute winning strategies for each state in your portfolio, including annual goals, stakeholder maps, state-specific messaging, milestones, and critical path
  • 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
  • Track funding and legislative opportunities, RFPs, and policy discussions to ensure Cartwheel is a step ahead of important developments in your territory

Build and steward relationships with state leaders

  • Cultivate trust-based relationships with governors' offices, legislators, education and health agencies, and key statewide organizations (e.g., superintendents associations)
  • Tailor messaging to each state's context and priorities, continuously refining based on feedback from the field
  • Manage external lobbyists in your states, ensuring clear objectives, messaging, action plans, and accountability
  • Proactively communicate with state stakeholders on Cartwheel’s impact and learnings from peer states to highlight our value propositions and ability to advance their top goals

Drive operational rigor and collaboration

  • Ensure Cartwheel is the most organized, thoughtful, and strategic partner your state contacts have ever worked with
  • Maintain detailed pipeline tracking, stakeholder mapping, and opportunity management
  • Report regularly to the Head of Government Relations on state pipeline, contract status, and forecasted revenue
  • Share learnings with teammates to continuously improve our shared GR approach
  • Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Product, and Success teams to ensure Cartwheel delivers the impact required to renew and expand contracts year-over-year

WHO YOU ARE

  • 5-7+ years in government relations, government sales, or policy roles in healthcare or education, with a track record securing state-level contracts worth $1-3M+ annually
  • Exceptional relationship-building skills with diverse stakeholders including elected officials, agency administrators, and advocacy organizations
  • Clear, concise written and verbal communicator
  • Ability to manage a complex, multi-state portfolio with long sales cycles (12-24+ months)
  • Track record managing external lobbyists, including directing strategy, ensuring rigorous execution, and measuring performance
  • Proficiency with pipeline management tools (Salesforce) and Excel/PowerPoint
  • Enthusiasm for helping build a new function from the ground up in a startup environment
  • Passionate about our mission to support student mental health
  • Preference for candidates with experience in one or more of the following states: AL, AR, AZ, GA, ID, KS, LA, MO, MS, MT, ND, NE, OK, SC, WV

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

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.

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