Future Opportunities Sensory & Product Insights Intern R&D (Summer 2027)

Sensory & Product Insights Intern R&D (Summer 2027) 

Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States 

Location: Hershey, PA 

Duration:  May 2027 – August 2027 

Sensory & Product Insights Intern  

Overview 
Residing at the Hershey Company's Technical Center, this position involves a unique opportunity to work within the Sensory & Product Insights team. This team is responsible for conducting Sensory internal and external research to support new product development, processes or formulation changes for cost optimization or quality improvements, and commodity resiliency. The Sensory & Product Insights Intern will work independently and as a part of cross functional teams to achieve goals on project assignments. A successful candidate should be able to interact with many different types of individuals including various scientists, product developers, marketing, consumer research and management. 
  
This candidate will have the opportunity to provide Sensory & Product Insights support in either Chocolate, Sweets and Refreshments, Better For You/Protein, or Salty Snacks Product Development.  This role will require individuals to demonstrate leadership, solve technical problems, collect, analyze, interpret and report sensory and/or consumer data and present actionable business results and recommendations.  

Potential Duties/Responsibilities: 

Project responsibilities include developing a research design applying the correct Sensory method, statistical analysis, and reporting results. Daily work responsibilities may include use of Sensory data collection systems such as EyeQuestion and conducting descriptive analysis, hedonic, and/or discrimination testing.   

Provide support to research projects or portions of larger projects which provide innovative new products and/or product/process improvements in R&D.  

Perform prototyping and development from benchtop to pilot plant to full manufacturing scale.  

Test ideas through experimentation, applying technical rigor and scientific principles and practices.    

Determine next steps through problem solving while understanding the business impact.  

Assist team in accomplishing project tasks.  

Interact closely with a cross-functional group of technical, professional, and managerial staff of R&D, as well as manufacturing, engineering, quality, regulatory compliance, science and technology, marketing, and external research suppliers.  

Qualifications: 

 
Education: 

Majors: Food Science, Psychology, or Statistics with an emphasis in Sensory and Consumer Research 

Must be pursuing an undergraduate Bachelor's degree (preferably junior or senior) 

Minimum GPA: 3.0  

Experience: 

Prior internships with related experience are highly valued 

Minimum Knowledge/ skills/ abilities required to successfully perform major duties/responsibilities: 

Strong interest in hands-on work and applying technical rigor and scientific principles and practices 

Highly motivated 

Comfortable with laboratory equipment 

Proficient in written and communication skills 

Computer literate (Excel, Word, PowerPoint) 

Demonstrated problem solving and evaluation capabilities 

Excellent troubleshooting skills  

Able to work independently, and as part of a team environment 

Must be open and comfortable with change. 

Things the prospective candidate should know:  

The prospective candidate will be responsible for identifying a reliable source of transportation during the duration of the internship, preferably a car. 

Allergy Statements: 

The prospective candidate should be aware that they may need to handle allergens including dairy, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, eggs and other food ingredient chemicals and allergens while wearing appropriate PPE during their internship. 

The manufacturing facility where this internship is located handles the following allergens on a regular basis (dairy, wheat, soy, peanut, tree nuts, egg, sesame)