Full-Time
Senior Manager Business Strategy & Planning
Posted on 8/21/2026
Hershey
10,001+ employees
Manufacturer of snacks and confectionery brands
No salary listed
Hershey, PA, USA
In Person
Bachelor's, MBA
 Business & Strategy (1) |
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- 7+ years of progressive experience in Commercial Strategy, Growth Strategy, Management Consulting, Revenue Growth Management, Sales Strategy, Consumer Insights, Analytics, Finance, Category Management, or related business functions.
- A bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Economics, Finance, Strategy, Analytics, or a related field.
- Demonstrated experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives from concept through implementation.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities with experience translating data into business recommendations.
- Experience developing business cases, strategic plans, financial evaluations, and executive presentations.
- Proven ability to influence stakeholders and lead through collaboration in matrixed environments.
- Strong communication, storytelling, and executive presentation skills.
- Lead complex, cross-functional initiatives that advance enterprise growth priorities and improve commercial effectiveness and organizational performance.
- Define scope, success metrics, and stakeholder alignment while driving execution from opportunity identification through implementation.
- Develop workplans, governance structures, and decision frameworks that deliver measurable business results.
- Leverage consumer, customer, marketplace, competitive, and financial insights to uncover growth and value creation opportunities.
- Assess market trends, channel dynamics, consumer behavior shifts, and competitive activity to identify new growth pathways.
- Develop and maintain a prioritized pipeline aligned to business objectives.
- Synthesize market, shopper, retail, financial, and commercial performance data into clear recommendations for senior leadership.
- Translate complex analyses into concise insights that clarify risks, opportunities, tradeoffs, and expected business impact.
- Evaluate strategic alternatives and provide data-driven recommendations to commercial and business leaders.
- Facilitate cross-functional alignment on key decisions while considering commercial, operational, financial, consumer, and customer implications.
- Assess business model innovations, strategic investments, partnerships, revenue opportunities, and capability expansions.
- Conduct market assessments, financial modeling, scenario planning, and feasibility analyses to determine strategic value.
- Develop business cases that support investment and resource allocation decisions.
- Partner across Sales, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, Revenue Growth Management, Consumer Insights, and Strategy to execute growth initiatives.
- Manage priorities, risks, dependencies, and obstacles to keep initiatives aligned with strategic objectives and deliver intended results.
- Partner with functional leaders to quantify business impact, assess risks, and recommend corrective actions when outcomes deviate from plan.
- Develop executive-ready presentations and recommendations that communicate insights, opportunities, and business implications.
- Present findings to senior leadership and facilitate decision-making, resolve competing priorities, influence resource allocation, and build executive alignment around critical growth and capability initiatives.
- An MBA or advanced degree.
- Experience within Consumer Packaged Goods, Retail, Food and Beverage, or related consumer industries.
- Experience at a top-tier consulting firm, strategy organization, or commercial growth function.
- Knowledge of consumer, shopper, customer, and marketplace analytics.
- Experience working with syndicated data sources, business intelligence tools, and financial modeling.
- Demonstrated success identifying and scaling growth opportunities that improve revenue, profit, market share, or strategic capability.
Hershey makes and sells snacks and confections under many well-known brands, such as HERSHEY’S, REESE’S, KIT KAT, JOLLY RANCHER, ICE BREAKERS, and SkinnyPop, earning billions in revenue each year. Its products are created by baking, molding, and packaging chocolate bars, candy, and snack foods so they can be enjoyed by consumers and distributed through retailers around the world. What sets Hershey apart is its large, diverse brand portfolio and its long-standing commitment to responsible business practices and community support, including education initiatives like the Milton Hershey School. The company’s goal is to create more moments of goodness for people by delivering trusted snacks while supporting its people and communities through sustainability and social programs.
Company Size
10,001+
Company Stage
IPO
Headquarters
Derry Township (Dauphin County), Pennsylvania
Founded
1894
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- July 30, 2026 Q2 sales rose 6.6%, and Hershey lifted full-year guidance.
- North America Salty Snacks grew 22.9%; that momentum supports diversification beyond chocolate.
- AI trimmed three months from concept approval, expanding the innovation pipeline 75%.
What critics are saying
- Cocoa tariffs and expensive beans still threaten 2026 margins despite July price hikes.
- Q2 volume fell 8%; relentless pricing can push shoppers toward Mondelez, Nestlé, or private label.
- A cocoa supply shock or labor scandal would hit Hershey’s core brand trust fast.
What makes Hershey unique
- Reese’s and Hershey brands still dominate Halloween; August 2026 portfolio spans 20 launches.
- Publicis now handles international media from January 1, 2027, sharpening global data-driven marketing.
- Hershey pairs confectionery with salty snacks through SkinnyPop, Pirate’s Booty, and LesserEvil.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Flexible Work Hours
Company News
Hershey targets the health-conscious with savoury Halloween snacks. Halloween trick-or-treating could be less sugary than usual this year as consumers look for healthier snacks and candy companies such as Hershey, opens new tab, the United States' biggest chocolate-maker, adapt their product offerings. Fuelled by GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and a growing focus on health, eating habits are changing, leading the makers of sweet and salty snacks to adjust their portfolios to offer more protein, smaller-sized products and fewer calories. Hershey's vice president for demand creation, strategy and innovation, Dan Mohnshine, told Reuters, "Certainly, the Lesser Evil brand and our salty snacks brands broadly, Skinny Pop and Pirate's Booty, having a greater presence in Halloween is in response to the 'Healthy Eating' dynamic." However, he said chocolate will still be the Halloween snack of choice. He said, "When it comes to GLP-1s, we've seen pretty strong resilience in the chocolate category here in the US." Without giving precise figures, he said early-season sales of snack-size bags of chocolates and sweets had risen in double-digits versus a year ago. Sugar-free versions, sweetened with sugar alcohols rather than conventional sugar, are also a growth area. US dollar sales in Hershey's Zero Sugar candy, mint and gum business grew around 4.3 times from 2020 through 2025, Mohnshine said. AI-Driven Innovation And The 'Trunk Or Treat' Trend According to Hershey's 'Unwrapping Halloween' report, published in partnership with data intelligence firm Morning Consult this month, three of the five biggest-selling US candies at Halloween are Hershey's products and two-thirds of parents have already bought Halloween treats in the summer. Further research from the National Confectioners Association found that in 2024, Americans spent $7.4 billion on treats, accounting for 18% of all confectionery retail sales that year. Given the amount at stake, Hershey is using artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up product development. Mohnshine said, "Foodprocessingbazaar has removed about three months from the typical timeframe it takes to go from consumer insight to approved concept. "As a result, our innovation pipeline over the last nine months has expanded 75%." AI also identifies "trunk-or-treat" parties as a growing trend. They began in Covid lockdowns and are still favoured by communities and families who gather with their cars to exchange treats. Mohnshine is expecting them to be more popular than ever this year and says the Reese's maker is at the ready with its expanded range of small, individually wrapped pieces that he said are "the key to remaining relevant."
Hershey is expanding its Halloween portfolio beyond chocolate and candy to include salty snacks as consumers increasingly seek healthier options. The company's 2026 Halloween lineup features over 20 new products, marking the first time brands like SkinnyPop, Pirate's Booty, and LesserEvil will appear in its seasonal offering. Daniel Mohnshine, Hershey's vice president for demand creation, strategy and innovation, said the move responds to healthy eating trends. He noted chocolate remains the Halloween favourite and that the Zero Sugar segment grew 4.3-fold in dollar terms over five years ending in 2025. Hershey's "Unwrapping Halloween" report found 30% of parents plan to attend trunk-or-treat events this year, whilst nearly two-thirds stock up on Halloween candy before summer ends. The company raised its full-year guidance after second-quarter North America Salty Snacks sales climbed 22.9%.
Reese's Halloween pumpkins return to store shelves unchanged after Hershey won lawsuit. August 13, 2026 / 10:26 AM EDT / CBS News Last year, Hershey prevailed in a lawsuit that claimed Reese's featureless Halloween pumpkins were a consumer letdown. Starting this month, the spooky treats will return to store shelves, though without any changes to their smooth, oval shapes. "We know what consumers love," said Katie DeCapria, senior brand manager for Halloween at Hershey, in a press conference about the candy company's fall lineup. "We have not made any changes to the Reese's shapes." "The pumpkin is the cornerstone of our portfolio," she added. Of course, fans of the candy might say it's hard to go wrong with a combination of peanut butter and chocolate, regardless of a candy's shape or features. The legal dispute over the Reese's pumpkins kicked off in 2024, when a lawsuit alleged that Hershey's ads for the candies were deceptive because the smiling pumpkin designs on the wrappers were absent from the actual candies. In September 2025, a judge dismissed the lawsuit, noting that consumers could still enjoy the treats even if they felt tricked by the wrappers. On Thursday, almost a year after that court victory, Hershey said it is introducing 20 Halloween-themed products that will hit stores this week, marking the company's largest Halloween rollout. The annual event is now celebrated for roughly one-third of the calendar year as consumers kick off their spooky celebrations earlier, beginning with "summerween" celebrations in the warmer months, according to Hershey. Summerween refers to Halloween-themed celebrations that some consumers organize in the summer months, with retailers participating by unveiling fall-themed products earlier in the year. Halloween spending reached a record $13.1 billion in 2025, according to the National Retail Federation. About two-thirds of the roughly 1,000 parents polled by Hershey reported having already bought Halloween candy this summer. Reese's pumpkins remain one of the company's most popular Halloween items, Hershey said. Other Halloween treats accompanying the Reese's pumpkins this year include Hershey's cookies 'n' creme fangs, a fang-shaped candy that's returning after being absent from shelves in 2025, and KitKats shaped like a vampire count and a witch. The company is also introducing some non-chocolate treats, such as LesserEvil pumpkin spice popcorn and LesserEvil cheesy corn balls with Halloween packaging.
Jennifer Mccalman, VP and Chief Accounting Officer at The Hershey Company, sold 710 shares of common stock on 6 August 2026 for $128,354, according to an SEC Form 4 filing. The sale was conducted under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted on 6 May 2026. Following the transaction, Mccalman directly holds 3,586 shares, representing 0.0018% of total shares outstanding. At the market close on the transaction date, shares were priced at $183.02. The Hershey Company currently holds a market capitalisation of $37.0 billion, with trailing twelve-month revenue of $12.2 billion and net income of $1.5 billion. The company manufactures and distributes confectionery products and salty snacks across North America and international markets.
Steven Voskuil, chief financial officer of The Hershey Company, sold 950 shares of common stock on 5 August 2026 for approximately $171,000, according to a regulatory filing. The transaction was executed under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted three months earlier. Following the sale, Voskuil retains 52,245 shares valued at $9.38 million. The sold shares represent a small portion of his total holdings. At the time of the transaction, Hershey reported trailing-twelve-month revenue of $12.2 billion and net income of $1.5 billion. The stock delivered a negative 2% one-year return as of the transaction date. Hershey manufactures confectionery products and salty snacks through three business segments: North America Confectionery, North America Salty Snacks, and International operations.