Job Title: Regulatory Specialist-Salty Snacks

Job Location: Hershey, PA

Summary:

A position in Regulatory Affairs within the QRC organization involves leveraging knowledge of global food safety, nutrition science, claims and labeling regulation and data analytics to develop policies, standards, and set company direction to ensure ingredient, product and label compliance. At Hershey this means ensuring that all aspects of a product’s lifecycle from development to delivery are compliant with all government regulations and company standards for the retail markets in which they are sold. This involves monitoring the global food regulatory landscape for emerging issues; advising key internal stakeholders on potential impact to the company; engaging and advocating as appropriate; and ensuring compliance. 

Major Duties/Responsibilities: 

Regulatory Compliance

• Apply food science, nutrition, and broad knowledge of US and global regulation - including US, Prop 65, Codex Alimentarius – to assess existing, new, and novel salty snacks ingredients for compliance and impacts to formula and labeling.
• Knowledge of claims (e.g., organic, GMO, free from, vegan, plant based) and third-party certifications to support ingredient review, suitability, and accurate product labeling.
• Support the development/execution of contaminant management programs for key salty snack ingredient categories

Business Engagement/Technical Leadership

• Enhance collaboration on internal project teams, clearly communicate regulatory positions, and continually look for ways to develop creative solutions to enable innovation and growth
• Work with cross functional business partners and regional regulatory colleagues around the world to communicate salty snack ingredient specifications and potential impacts with new products, new suppliers, or product reformulations
• Support reliability and reporting of regulatory metrics and responses to internal stakeholder on regulatory requests related to salty snack ingredients.

Minimum knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform major duties/responsibilities: 

• Experience in regulatory affairs, particularly around food safety, labeling/claims, nutrition, food additives, GRAS ingredients, standards of identity, health and nutrient content claims.
• Experience in food science and/or manufacturing of snack foods a plus
• Knowledge of international regulations a plus
• Prior experience critically reviewing supplier ingredient information a plus
• Comfortable working within and navigating various software applications, including SAP, global food regulation databases, horizon scanning tools, Power BI, project management databases (e.g., Accolade)
• Strong problem solving and critical thinking. Comfortable with ambiguity.
• Excellent analytical and researching skills
• Excellent communication skills (i.e., verbal, written, presentations) to various audiences with different technical backgrounds
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to self-manage multiple priorities
• Strong initiative and agility in a fast-paced and changing environment
• Impeccable ethics, must maintain a high level of confidentiality

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements:

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Science Related Field (Food Nutrition, Food Law and Regulation, Food Science, Biology, Chemistry) or equivalent.

Experience:

• Minimum of 2 years related regulatory affairs experience with experience in salty snacks being a plus

#LI-MB1