Careers at Hunter & Hilsberg

🍓JOIN our Jam-Making DREAM TEAM 🍓

Join a close-knit team making SOME OF THE BEST PRESERVES IN THE COUNTRY! We’ve been in business since 1995 and have been growing ever since.

👍 No Direct Experience Needed

We’ll teach you everything you need to know.

👍 Growth Opportunities 

As we grow, so do you—advance your skills, take on new responsibilities, and shape your own career path.

⏭️ Open Positions

Jam Team Specialist (Specialty Food Production) II

Pay: $18.00–$25.00 per hour |  experience affects pay rate

Schedule: Full-Time, DAYS - Monday through Friday, 9 am until ca. 5–6 pm

Full-time, in-person position

Location: Homer, NY - site is 10 minutes from Rte 81 Preble or Homer exits. Or a 15 minute drive from Tully, Cortland, Otisco, Truxton, Moravia; 30 minutes from Skaneateles, Marcellus, Onondaga Hill, Auburn, Cazenovia, Syracuse & Ithaca areas.

About Us

Hunter & Hilsberg is a small-batch specialty food maker producing premium jams, jellies, preserves, fruit butters, chutneys and sauces for gourmet stores, farm markets, grocery and food service customers throughout the country.

What You’ll Do

As much an art as it is a science, you will work with a small team and learn all aspects of turning simple ingredients into shelf-stable, high-quality, old-school-style preserves and fruit spreads.

You will learn and manage the entire production process alongside the company founders and fellow jam-makers in a small-batch commercial kitchen environment.

Production teamwork involves product preparation, following process formulations, cooking, packaging, record-keeping and cleaning in accordance with Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) and Safe Quality Food (SQF) principles.

Because we are a small team, everyone plays an important role. Team members support one another, ensure quality assurance and food safety control points are met, and have the initiative to identify and complete open tasks.

Experience

Previous food or beverage experience can be a great foundation for this position, but we are also willing to train motivated candidates who demonstrate a strong work ethic, reliability, attention to detail and a willingness to learn.

If you have experience working in restaurants, bakeries, commercial kitchens, university or school dining, hospital food service, catering, food or beverage production, cideries, breweries, farming, canning, cooking, manufacturing or other hands-on environments, please be sure to highlight it in your application.

Experience with batch or volume cooking, following standardized recipes or formulations, food safety and sanitation, training others, production records, inventory, or helping keep a team and production on track is especially helpful — but not required.

What We’re Looking For

We are looking for someone who takes pride in doing quality work, enjoys working with their hands, and is looking for a long-term opportunity rather than simply their next job.

This position is ideal for someone who values teamwork, professionalism and personal responsibility, enjoys seeing a finished product at the end of the day, and wants to learn the craft of producing premium specialty food products.

A qualified candidate should be:

• Reliable

• Detail-oriented

• Positive and encouraging to others

• Able to work cooperatively as part of a small team

• Willing to learn and take on increasing responsibility

• Able to take initiative and identify tasks that need to be completed

• Committed to cleanliness and food safety

• Able to lift 30–50 pounds repeatedly

• Able to stand for extended periods of time

You do not need to arrive knowing how to make jam. We will teach you our processes. What matters is bringing the work ethic, professionalism and willingness to learn required to become very good at it.

Schedule

This is a full-time, Monday-through-Friday position.

Our production day generally begins at 9:00 am and ends when the day’s production and close-out are completed, typically between approximately 5:00 and 6:00 pm.

A part-time position may also be available for the right candidate.

Compensation

Pay ranges from $18.00 to $25.00 per hour and is graduated based on experience, the amount of team and batch responsibility carried daily, full-time or part-time status, length of time with the company and individual performance.

Employees who develop the skills and experience to take on greater production, training and batch responsibilities have opportunities for increased responsibility and compensation.

Benefits & Extras

The following benefits, programs and extras may be available to qualifying personnel, subject to eligibility and applicable requirements:

• Paid Time Off

• Paid Family Leave

• Opportunities for overtime pay during our busiest periods

• Free staff pantry stocked with snacks and beverages

• Free products and employee discounts

• Professional development assistance

• Employee assistance program

• Referral program

• Insurance and retirement programs, as applicable

• Safety equipment provided