Packaging Engineer Jobs in Pennsylvania

Location: Hershey, PA
Career Level: T40

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.

How will you fit in the big picture?

Working independently, the Senior Packaging Engineer designs, develops, commercializes, and optimizes packaging solutions for new and existing products. The role ensures product protection, functionality, manufacturability, retail performance, cost effectiveness, data integrity, and sustainability across primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging.

The role manages tactical plans aligned with short-term business objectives and addresses moderate-to-complex challenges that may affect multiple teams. It applies advanced packaging materials, structural design, converting, manufacturing, automation, testing, and documentation expertise within established strategic guidelines. The position has increased ownership and scope and may serve as the primary packaging engineering support for a plant, brand, or category. It collaborates across functions and with vendors to deliver fact-based recommendations, robust technical solutions, and successful commercialization.

What will you do?

1. Packaging Development and Commercialization - 60%

• Collaborate with project and program initiators to define objectives, requirements, success criteria, scope, timing, and stakeholder expectations.
• Design, review, recommend, and test packaging solutions using appropriate material substrates and structures for primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging.
• Optimize material use, product protection, shelf life, retail performance, aesthetics, manufacturing efficiency, labor efficiency, cost, and sustainability.
• Select and qualify packaging materials and components based on product requirements, manufacturing capabilities, environmental impact, quality, and cost.
• Assess the impact of packaging designs on existing and new automation systems; identify and lead resolution of material, equipment, and process issues.
• Develop design-of-experiments and test methodologies; conduct analytical testing; evaluate technical data; and communicate conclusions and recommendations.
• Define success criteria and lead equipment trials, line trials, distribution tests, and other validation activities.
• Build fact-based business cases, recommend the best design, influence stakeholder alignment, and implement effective structural and process solutions.
• Manage multiple projects simultaneously, establish achievable schedules, drive timely completion, and proactively communicate risks, decisions, and required actions.
• Assess packaging failures or suboptimal performance across consumer, retail, distribution, and manufacturing environments; lead root-cause analysis and long-term corrective action.
• Act as primary packaging support for an assigned plant, brand, or category, as applicable, while sharing best demonstrated practices and improving ways of working with peers.

2. Technical Documentation and Data Integrity - 20%

• Create, approve, publish, and maintain accurate packaging specifications that define critical material, dimensional, quality, and assembly requirements.
• Prepare or provide mechanical drawings, written specifications, process instructions, and packaging component drawings required for artwork development and layout.
• Review and approve artwork for correct application to mechanical drawings and critical-to-function requirements, including UPC placement, date coding, and eyemarks.
• Create, enter, and publish accurate packaging bills of material in the Material Data Management System to support planning, sourcing, and correct finished-good construction.
• Publish specifications and bills of material in alignment with commercialization, production planning, and material-order timing.
• Support the development and review of packaging quality standards, tolerances, and regulatory documentation.
• Provide Procurement and suppliers with specifications and technical information needed for material costing and business-case analysis.
• Document technical risks, key decisions, trial results, data, analytics, and recommendations in appropriate project and shared repositories so records are accurate, accessible, and retrievable.

3. Packaging Optimization - 15%

• Identify and lead packaging research and value-analysis opportunities that reduce cost or material use, improve recyclability, and maintain product and package integrity.
• Partner with Procurement and cross-functional stakeholders to implement cost-reduction, complexity-reduction, and standardization strategies.
• Identify and implement packaging material, structural, equipment, and process changes that improve production and labor efficiency.
• Use internal and external customer data to identify causes of packaging failure or suboptimal performance and implement corrective actions.
• Advance material standardization and volume-leverage opportunities while protecting required performance and quality.

4. Continuous Improvement and Technical Leadership - 5%

• Maintain current knowledge of emerging packaging materials, converting methods, equipment, testing approaches, sustainability developments, and industry standards.
• Identify appropriate opportunities to apply new packaging technologies and share technical knowledge and best demonstrated practices with peers.
• Identify personal capability or ways-of-working gaps, establish development actions, and strengthen technical and collaborative effectiveness.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor of Science in Packaging Engineering preferred; Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a related science or engineering field is also acceptable, with 5-7 years of packaging development experience.
• Master of Science in Packaging Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, or a related science or engineering field, with 4-5 years of packaging development experience.
• The T40 job profile establishes a minimum experience requirement of 3+ years; the education and experience combinations above define the role-specific qualification guidelines.

Benefits and Perks:

The anticipated base salary range for this role is $92,160 to $115,200 per year. The actual base salary offered will depend on a variety of job‑related factors, including, but not limited to, experience, skill set, education, and training. In addition to a market-competitive base salary, our Total Rewards package includes performance‑based incentives and a comprehensive, competitive benefits package designed to support overall physical, mental, and financial well‑being (as applicable). Learn more about Hershey’s benefits and all the resources Hershey provides to support our employees’ physical, emotional, and financial well‑being by visiting the Hershey Digital Employee Experience at www.askHRbenefits.hersheys.com

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 ApplicationHelp@hersheys.com. 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.