Packaging Engineering I

The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) 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.

This role supports the design, testing, and implementation of packaging solutions for new and existing products under guidance from senior engineers. The Packaging Engineer contributes to projects that ensure product protection, quality, cost effectiveness, and sustainability. The position provides hands-on learning opportunities in manufacturing environments, supporting plant trials, start-ups, and issue resolution while gaining exposure to packaging equipment and production processes.

The engineer assists with material evaluation, performance testing, specification development, and documentation. The role works cross-functionally with commercial partners, operations, maintenance, equipment engineering, procurement, and suppliers to ensure packaging solutions align with manufacturing capabilities, regulatory requirements, and business needs.

The position is expected to manage a mix of low-to-medium complexity commercial projects which require fundamental packaging technology expertise. As a representative on project teams, the position is expected to advocate the best interests of packaging via sharing of technical knowledge, gathering fact-based data, providing analytics, and implementing solutions which deliver against project scope and expectations.

- Develop and commercialize packaging solutions that meet project objectives, product protection, quality, cost, sustainability, and manufacturing requirements.

- Design, review, test, and recommend packaging concepts for primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging.

- Evaluate packaging materials, structures, and automation impacts to optimize efficiency while maintaining product integrity and retail performance.

- Develop and execute testing methodologies, analyze results, and communicate technical findings to stakeholders.

- Coordinate equipment, line, and distribution trials to validate packaging materials and designs.

- Recommend and implement optimized packaging solutions aligned with stakeholder expectations.

- Support project success through effective communication, presentations, and proactive project management.

- Manage multiple projects simultaneously while meeting timelines and deliverables.

- Identify and resolve packaging-related performance issues and implement long-term corrective actions with cross-functional partners.

- Create and maintain packaging specifications, mechanical drawings, process instructions, and bills of materials.

- Support artwork development and approval, ensuring compliance with critical-to-function requirements.

- Publish specifications and BOMs to support production planning and material procurement.

- Assist in developing packaging quality standards, tolerances, and regulatory documentation.

- Partner with Procurement to obtain and communicate packaging cost estimates.

- Ensure packaging decisions, risks, project documentation, and technical reports are accurately documented and archived.

- Identify opportunities to reduce packaging costs, material usage, and environmental impact while maintaining product performance.

- Partner with Procurement to implement cost-reduction initiatives.

- Conduct value analysis to improve production efficiency and packaging performance.

- Analyze customer and operational data to identify root causes of packaging issues and implement corrective actions.

- Drive material standardization initiatives to reduce complexity and leverage purchasing efficiencies.

- Possess basic understanding of packaging concepts and principles.

- Fundamental technical knowledge of packaging materials and converting technologies

- Possess mechanical aptitude and ability to understand interrelation of material & equipment

- Ability to design transport simulation tests and interpret results.

- Good critical thinking skills to consider how constraints/changes impact design and functional attributes

- Ability to make rational decisions independently and seek assistance as needed for complex matters

- Ability to successfully communicate complex subject matter both verbally and in written form to audiences of varying organizational levels and technical/business understanding with some manager guidance.

- Basic understanding of supply chain operations and cross-functional partner responsibilities

- Able to work collaboratively with others to accomplish a common objective.

- Self-motivated and takes initiative/action with minimal direction

- Ability to successfully and consistently prioritize and manage multiple projects simultaneously.

- Good organizational, time management, and communication skills to meet commitments.

- Strong PC skills; Outlook, Excel, Powerpoint, Cape/Tops, MS Teams, SAP(nice to have)

BS in Packaging Engineering preferred with 1-3 years of Packaging Development experience.

BS in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering or related science field with 1-4 years of experience in Packaging Development.

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