Is a hybrid career possible in academia
In my observation, there are some advantages and disadvantages in academia for faculty who come from an industrial background and have research interests relating to industry.  The main benefit I have seen is that this often gives useful applied research ideas, and it also often gives scope for some research projects that are of benefit to industry, and therefore gives the opportunity to secure industry funding for research.  Attracting &quot;external funding&quot; is one of the most sought after abilities for academics, and if you are able to develop a research project that attracts industry funding then your university will love you and you have a high chance of academic promotion.  Moreover, if you can secure industry funding for a project, this may make it easier to secure supplementary funding from traditional grant-funding bodies, since they don't have to fund the whole project.
The difficulty you will encounter, highlighted in the comments to your answer, is that there will be a need to negotiate ownership and IP issues in a way that satisfies all funding bodies and the university.  Companies and industry bodies will sometimes fund &quot;general&quot; research that they perceive to be of benefit to them, but they may want the research to lead to some new development or product where they can claim IP ownership.  Contrarily, public universities and public grant-funding bodies will want research projects that give some &quot;public benefit&quot; and not just a private benefit to a company or industry body claiming IP rights.  Consequently, if you want to create a successful research project that spans both these institutions, you will need to negotiate an appropriate compromise that satisfies all parties.  Usually this will entail a guarantee by the industry funders that you can publish some or all of your research in academic journals, but possibly with some extra private knowledge that they may lay claim to (e.g., ownership of a particular dataset, etc.).  I have not had experience with this, but I have seen some successful academics who manage to produce research projects that span industry.  Regardless of whether you can achieve this, I would say that it is often very valuable to have some industry experience coming in to academia.  At worst, it will give you some useful research ideas that have arisen from your industrial practice, and networking connections with industry figures to come up with new research ideas and methods.
In terms of pursuing a &quot;hybrid&quot; career, this may also be possible.  Universities usually allow (or even encourage) their academics to pursue some &quot;service to the profession&quot; that may consist of outside consulting work, or engagement with commercial/industrial projects.  As a rule of thumb, most universities allow an academic to spend up to 20% of their time on this, subject to faculty approval.  (But it varies, so check the rules at the particular university you are thinking of applying to.)  It might also be possible to supplement this with your recreational leave if you don't mind using this for outside work.  To have a successful &quot;hybrid&quot; career, you will have to adapt to the imperatives of university environment, in particular the necessity to &quot;publish or perish&quot;.  Nevertheless, having an industrial background can sometimes help with this, insofar as it assists in creating useful research ideas.