same... I couldn't care less about titles or office politics... I just want some challenging work to do and a path to work-life balance

Talking from the standpoint of “I recently got a position and won quite some grants considering my age”: you really have to balance the two. Going out and doing the research you want to will make you do good research and make you appealing to fellow researchers, but you also need a bit of a catchy title from time to time and a lot of networking, everywhere, all the time. That often includes planning your own symposium/workshop/whatever. Then getting a small grant always helps, and that is a “skill” on its own: selling your research to people that don’t know anything about it while feeling like you are completely waisting your time.