Senior Process Engineer, Salty Snacks R&D

The Hershey Company; Hershey (PA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health & Wellbeing

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Career development

Job summary

The Hershey Company is seeking a Senior Engineer, Salty R&D to drive end-to-end process development, scale-up, and commercialization across our salty and baked snack platforms, including popcorn, pretzels, and fried snacks. You will work with Product Development, Engineering, Operations, and Quality to scale new snack technologies from pilot to full production.

Bring strong engineering expertise to develop robust processes, deliver consistent product quality, and enable innovation across

Qualifications

• BS degree in Chemical Engineering, Food Engineering, Chemistry, or related field with 6-8 years’ experience, MS or PhD with 2-4 years’ experience.
• Experience with two or more salty snacks processes (popcorn, extrusion, frying, pretzels, baked snacks).
• Demonstrated success scaling new products or processes into manufacturing.
• Experience with DOE, statistical tools, and data-driven root cause analysis (e.g., Six Sigma).
• Experience leading plant trials and troubleshooting manufacturing issues.

Responsibilities

• Provide process development expertise across salty and baked snack platforms, including thermal processing, extrusion, frying, baking, and seasoning.
• Design and support process validation experiments to optimize throughput, yield, texture, moisture, energy use, and product consistency.
• Lead pilot-scale and full-scale trials for new processes, equipment modifications, and technology introductions.
• Partner with Operations and Engineering on equipment commissioning, FAT/SAT, and process validation.
• Troubleshoot complex manufacturing challenges related to texture variability, oil quality, seasoning adhesion, and airflow.

Skills

Process development

Pilot-scale testing

Scale-up

DOE / Statistics

Troubleshooting

Cross-functional collaboration

Manufacturing knowledge

Education

BS in Chemical/ Food Engineering

MS/PhD in Food/ related field

Job description

The Hershey Company is seeking a Senior Engineer, Salty R&D to drive end-to-end process development, scale-up, and commercialization across our salty and baked snack platforms, including popcorn, pretzels, and fried snacks. You will work with Product Development, Engineering, Operations, and Quality to scale new snack technologies from pilot to full production.

Bring strong engineering expertise to develop robust processes, deliver consistent product quality, and enable innovation across