Sr. Research Scientist

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

The Hershey Company is an industry-leading snacks company known for making more moments of goodness through its iconic brands. With a strong portfolio across chocolate, confectionery, and salty snacks, Hershey delights consumers every day. Our beloved brands include Hershey’s, Reese’s, KitKat®, Dots Pretzels, Lesser Evil, Jolly Rancher, Twizzlers, Ice Breakers, and more. At Hershey, we are committed to making a meaningful difference in the communities where we live, work, and do business. Guided by our employee value proposition, Lead Today. Create Tomorrow, we empower our people to drive impact now while shaping what comes next. Our One Hershey mindset brings teams together across functions, geographies, and businesses, enabling us to operate with speed, collaboration, and shared purpose.

About the role

Reporting to the Sr. Manager, R&D, the Senior Research Scientist will provide technical leadership across multiple innovation and product development projects within Hershey's confection and chocolate portfolio. This role is responsible for leveraging formulation expertise, scientific rigor, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver new products, product improvements, and process innovations that support business growth. The ideal candidate will combine strong confectionery product development knowledge with hands-on experience scaling products from benchtop through pilot plant and full manufacturing. This role offers the opportunity to influence product direction, partner with teams across the enterprise, and help bring innovative solutions to life at the Sweetest Place on Earth.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Requirements

• 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.

Qualifications

• 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

At Hershey, we offer competitive pay and a comprehensive total rewards package designed to support your wellbeing, financial security, and life outside of work.

• 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

Benefits may vary based on role, location, and eligibility.