They might have said "years of experience" because the candidate was lacking some important skills that Shopify needs in their senior engineers, and Shopify fel

They might have said "years of experience" because the candidate was lacking some important skills that Shopify needs in their senior engineers, and Shopify felt that the candidate was plenty smart and the only reason they hadn't learned those skills was a lack of time and opportunity, which a few more years in the industry would likely cure. Sometimes the handful of words that filter through on the internet don't do justice to the reasoning behind them.