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Sr Research Scientist Sweets Job Details | The Hershey Company Note: To protect the confidentiality, privacy, and security of The Hershey Company, its personnel, and its interview process, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools during interviews to listen, transcribe, record, or assist with answering interview questions is prohibited unless explicitly approved in advance. This is consistent with local data protection laws. Note: To protect the confidentiality, privacy, and security of The Hershey Company, its personnel, and its interview process, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools during interviews to listen, transcribe, record, or assist with answering interview questions is prohibited unless explicitly approved in advance. This is consistent with local data protection laws. Note: To protect the confidentiality, privacy, and security of The Hershey Company, its personnel, and its interview process, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools during interviews to listen, transcribe, record, or assist with answering interview questions is prohibited unless explicitly approved in advance. This is consistent with local data protection laws. Note: If you apply for a role at Hershey through our career’s website, we may use technologies that use automation to filter your candidacy based on objective criteria. We also use AI-enabled tools that help us facilitate the selection of our future Hershey talent. These tools may help with activities such as matching and scoring candidates to roles based on requirements and scheduling interviews. These systems process only the information you provide in your application, including your resume, work history, education, and responses to screening questions. While these technologies assist with certain steps in our recruitment process and may provide recommendations, all final decisions, including those affecting whether candidates advance to subsequent stages in the applicant process, are made by our talent acquisition teams with meaningful human review and independent judgment. Depending on your location and the specific role you apply for, additional disclosures about our use of AI in recruitment may be provided to you separately. Sr Research Scientist Sweets Posted Date: Aug 11, 2026 Requisition Number: 129399 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. Location: Hershey, PA 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. This commitment originated with our founder, Milton Hershey, and continues to shape who we are today. 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. The Hershey Company is proud to be recognized as a top employer in the United States, reflecting our commitment to our people, culture, and purpose. How will you fit in the big picture? Design innovative products for beloved brands including Jolly Rancher, Twizzlers, Sour Strips, Ice Breakers, and Bubble Yum! Reporting to the Senior Manager, Sweets & Refreshment, this role is part of The Hershey Company’s Product Development R&D team at the Technical Center in Hershey, PA. The Senior Research Scientist will lead product and process development across hard candy, gummies, licorice, gum, and mints. This role translates consumer insights and business needs into scalable products through formulation, prototyping, pilot plant trials, manufacturing scale-up, and commercialization. The successful candidate will bring strong technical expertise, project leadership, and cross-functional collaboration to drive innovation, product improvement, supply continuity, and future technical capabilities across the Sweets & Refreshment portfolio. What will you do? • Lead product development projects across hard candy, gummies, licorice, gum, mints, chewy confections, and sugar-free/polyol systems. • Develop formulations and prototypes from bench through pilot plant and full-scale manufacturing. • Partner with Marketing, Consumer Insights, Sensory, Quality, Regulatory, Engineering, Manufacturing, Procurement, Supply Chain, Project Management, Commercialization, Technology Development, and external suppliers/co-manufacturers. • Support innovation, renovation, capacity expansion, cost savings, supply continuity, and transformation initiatives. • Design and execute experiments, manufacturing trials, and technical evaluations; analyze results and provide recommendations. • Build expertise in confectionery and refreshment technologies while mentoring peers and sharing knowledge. • Foster a collaborative, fast-paced R&D culture focused on technical rigor, problem solving, and consumer-first innovation. Approximately 25% travel required, including domestic and international travel for plant trials, supplier/co-manufacturer engagement, technical learning, and commercialization support. Minimum Education & Requirements Experience Working knowledge of food, beverage, confectionery, ingredient, consumer packaged goods, or related product development environments is preferred. Education Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Biology , or a related technical field with 4–6 years of relevant experience ; Master’s degree with 2– 4 years of relevant experience ; or PhD with 0–2 years of relevant experience . Benefits and Perks 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. 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 [email protected]. 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. LI-KR1 LI-Onsite Nearest Major Market: Harrisburg Opens in a new tab. Opens in a new tab. Opens in a new tab. Opens in a new tab. Opens in a new tab. © 2022 THE HERSHEY COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. × When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. However, blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Required Cookies These cookies are required to use this website and can't be turned off. 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