Staff Scientist Popcorn & Kid Snacking

Apply now »

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.
Staff Scientist Popcorn & Kid Snacking
Posted Date:
Aug 9, 2026

Requisition Number: 129167

Job Location:

Hershey, PA
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.
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?
The Staff Scientist, R&D – Fried Snacks is a key technical leader within Hershey’s salty snacks business, advancing innovation, renovation, and productivity initiatives across tortilla chips, potato chips, and other fried snack platforms. Reporting to the Sr. Manager, Popcorn and Kid Snacking, this role serves as a subject matter expert in fried snack technology and helps shape the long-term technical roadmap for the category.

Based at the Hershey Technical Center, you will collaborate across R&D, Operations, Engineering, Quality, Procurement, Marketing, Consumer Insights, and Sensory to bring winning products to market and drive manufacturing excellence.
What will you do?

• Lead complex product and process development projects from concept through commercialization.
• Serve as the technical expert in fried snack technologies including tortilla chips, potato chips, extruded snacks, and pellet-based products.
• Design and execute laboratory, pilot plant, and manufacturing trials using sound experimental design and statistical analysis.
• Identify, troubleshoot, and resolve manufacturing challenges related to dough systems, masa processing, potato processing, frying operations, seasoning application, and shelf-life performance.
• Drive process optimization through expertise in frying science, including heat transfer, oil management, moisture control, oxidation, filtration, and acrylamide mitigation.
• Partner cross-functionally with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Procurement, Marketing, Consumer Insights, and Sensory teams to deliver business objectives.
• Provide technical mentorship and guidance to junior scientists and development teams.
• Support capability-building initiatives that strengthen Hershey’s salty snack innovation pipeline and manufacturing network.
• Travel approximately 15-30% to support plant trials, supplier visits, and testing activities.

• BS, MS, or PhD with 5+ years of relevant experience in food science, food engineering, chemical engineering, or a related field.
• Strong experience…