I had applied on the company HR page and also was referred by a current employee via their internal system. I initially received a "we're not interested" reply but then a request for an interview a few weeks later. Had a standard recruiter interview but off the bat the recruiter wanted to warn me that this role was a step backward from my current role. I tried to reiterate that this was not an issue, I was ok with a shift in responsibility. It kept coming back up. I continued to try to articulate that this was not a problem for me and felt the interview went well aside from that, the usual questions about previous history. I reiterated in writing in a follow up thank you that the role would absolutely work for me and immediately was told my skills weren't a fit despite matching the description very well.