Who's Doobles

20+ years in Engineering. TA since 2016. Podcast Host. Public Speaker. Trainer. Natural Leader. Builder at heart.

I’m Mark Deubel, founder of Doobles and a Talent Acquisition leader who never quite fit the corporate mold. With 20+ years of hands-on engineering experience and 7+ years building high-performing recruiting teams at hypergrowth startups and IPO-stage scaleups, I’ve sat on both sides of the hiring table. And I know how to bridge the gap with strategy, tooling, and accessible, no-BS execution.

I’ve led hiring for companies like Elastic,GitLab, and Synthesia, scaling global teams, overhauling broken processes, and building TA functions from scratch. Currently I'm scaling PostHog and sharing my expertise while hiring the best of the best in the Open Source world. But here’s the truth: I don’t just “fill roles.” I build hiring machines. I coach managers. I mentor recruiters. I turn talent acquisition into a competitive advantage.

Why Doobles?

The name Doobles was born at Elastic. My Dutch last name, Deubel, tripped up a few colleagues, so a teammate coined “Doobles,” and it stuck. It had personality, and it had punch.

What started as a nickname became a brand. A brand that stands for an engineering approach to talent acquisition. Why? The easiest way to say it is that recruitment is broken, and fixing it takes more than good vibes and intuition. It takes engineering thinking.

With two decades in engineering - from maintaining Navy ships and helicopters, to working with satellite systems and project teams across IT, compliance, and infrastructure - I’ve seen what real systems thinking looks like. I bring that same mindset to hiring. And that’s the core of what Doobles is.

I bring Engineering Brains to Recruitment Pains

Doobles isn’t a recruiting agency. It’s Talent Acquisition Open Sourced!

I help fast-moving companies design and build scalable hiring systems using automation, AI, and product-led practices. Less firefighting. More system design.

The Voice Behind the Mic

I’m also the host of the Doobles Talks podcast where I go deep into what’s really happening in recruitment. Some episodes are solo monologues. Others are candid chats with TA pros, hiring managers, and tech leaders.

Unlike many shows that stay high-level and corporate, Doobles Talks keeps it practical. Actionable insights. Real talk. And the occasional rant. What started as a show for recruiters? Now hiring managers are tuning in to sharpen their game.

You might’ve seen me speak at RecFest, Sourcing Summit, and KubeCon or caught me on Hung Lee’s Brainfood Live or Matt Alder’s Recruiting Future. I talk about hiring like an engineer, the future of AI in TA, and how to stop playing defense in recruitment.