Sr. Research Scientist
Why Hershey:
At The Hershey Company, our culture is rooted in purpose and inspired by Milton Hershey’s enduring vision that business should create opportunity for others. Through our commitment to corporate philanthropy, we create positive impact by supporting communities, helping children thrive, and operating as a business for good. This includes our deep and long standing partnership with Milton Hershey School, where we invest in education, workforce readiness, and hands on engagement to help students succeed beyond the classroom. Supported by strategic grantmaking, product donations, cross brand collaboration, and strong employee volunteerism, Hershey offers a place to work where making a difference—locally and globally—is part of how we do business every day.
About The Hershey Company
How will you fit in the big picture?
What will you do?
- Lead formulation, ingredient, and product development activities across multiple medium-complexity innovation and commercialization projects.
- Execute technical workstreams that support defined project and product objectives, delivering high-quality technical outputs while identifying and escalating risks as appropriate.
- Apply established scientific methods, research, and analytical approaches to solve moderately complex technical challenges and support data-driven decision making.
- Drive product innovation through confection and chocolate formulation, recipe development, ingredient evaluation, and product transformation understanding.
- Lead assigned prototyping, scale-up, and commercialization activities from benchtop through pilot plant and manufacturing implementation.
- Conduct technical assessments and provide recommendations regarding feasibility, product performance, and manufacturing readiness.
- Contribute incremental innovations that improve development processes, experimentation, product quality, efficiency, or technical capabilities.
- Partner closely with Manufacturing, Engineering, Quality, Regulatory, Procurement, Supply Chain, Marketing, and external partners to advance short- and medium-term pipeline initiatives.
- Support technology validation, process optimization, quality improvement, and cost savings initiatives.
- Translate technical findings into clear recommendations and communicate project updates, challenges, and opportunities to stakeholders and leadership.
- Provide technical support during equipment commissioning, startup, troubleshooting, and commercialization activities.
- Mentor and share technical knowledge with team members while continuing to develop technical breadth across R&D disciplines.
Minimum Education & Requirements
Experience:
- 3+ years of relevant experience in food, confectionery, chocolate, ingredient, or product development environments.
- Demonstrated experience leading innovation, product development, process optimization, quality improvement, or commercialization initiatives.
- Experience with confection and chocolate formulation and recipe development.
- Knowledge of confectionery processing technologies including molding, enrobing, and panning.
- Preferred experience with better-for-you ingredients such as alternative sweeteners, proteins, fibers, and functional ingredients.
- Strong problem-solving, troubleshooting, project leadership, and influencing skills.
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative environment and adapt to changing priorities.
- Approximately 20% travel, primarily within the United States with occasional international travel.
Education:
- Bachelor's degree in Food Science, Food Technology, Food Chemistry, Food Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, or a related field with 4-6 years of relevant experience; OR
- Master's degree in a related discipline with 2-4 years of relevant experience.
Benefits and Perks
- Health & Wellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision coverage, plus wellness programs that support your physical and mental health
- Financial Security: Competitive pay, annual incentive opportunities, and a 401(k) with company match
- Time Off & Flexibility: Paid time off, company holidays, and flexible ways of working where applicable
- Growth & Development: Career development programs, learning opportunities, and internal mobility
The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The policy of The Hershey Company is to extend opportunities to qualified applicants and employees on an equal basis regardless of an individual's race, color, gender, age, national origin, religion, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other categories protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.
The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer - Minority/Female/Disabled/Protected Veterans.
You may request a reasonable accommodation if you are unable or limited in your ability to use or access our online application process as a result of a disability.
You can request an accommodation via phone or email.
To request an accommodation via phone, please call +1 877-804-1794 and leave a voicemail with your contact information. You may also email a request for accommodation to ApplicationHelp@hersheys.com. Please be sure to include “Accommodation Needed” in the subject line. This will ensure that your email is routed to the appropriate contact who will handle your request.
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Nearest Major Market: Harrisburg
