paper-pusher
pen pusher BrE informal
pencil pusher AmE informal

I was the pencil pusher, doing a lot of research.

This shift from hard hats to pencil pushers will continue.

And when an aspect of the recovery didn't meet expectations, they blamed the pencil pushers who administered the programs.

"I don't want to be a pencil pusher," he said.

The same pencil pushers who'd sent them to him?

He was holding a clipboard and appeared to be just another useless pencil pusher.

Not a pencil pusher with his head in his behind.

Its championship basketball tournament for men and women remains here, but many fear that it may eventually follow the pencil pushers in the headquarters.