Yep. Existence of "the best engineers" would imply existence of The One True Metric by which you can judge the person in all context; but that's at best an oversimplification.
The actual metrics (not necessarily easily quantifiable) are the desired traits you put in your job description; they don't correlate perfectly.
The actual metrics (not necessarily easily quantifiable) are the desired traits you put in your job description; they don't correlate perfectly.