For production staff puppet handlers, please see puppeteers.
A puppeteer was someone who operated a puppet.
In 2373, after saying he felt like a puppet, Quark referred to Jadzia Dax as a puppeteer, complaining that her moves during their bat'leth training had nearly wrenched his arm out of its socket. (DS9: "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places")
Behind the scenes, puppeteers operated small moving lifeforms such as Beauregard and the exocomps.