Got an LLM Researcher/Developer at my local university, how should I proceed later on so that I don't get swallowed in the academia world?

We all know how horrible the current market is for juniors, and yet, I feel blessed because I got a full-time job offer at my local university to develop an LLM for an engineering department, in a project that not only could become a viable product in the future but also, it's going to become my thesis since I was required to enroll in the PhD program to be eligible. The pay it's quite decent and it's 40 hours a week contract (like in the industry), with responsibilities and deadlines and not just a "simple" PhD project where I can isolate myself to work solely on my project. As I am hired by the university and part of a research group, I will also have to travel abroad to congresses and it will be mandatory for me to stay 6 months abroad with another university doing research with them. Finally, I am also working in building my startup that could extremely benefit becoming a spinoff of the university as it requires government data not directly accessible by the public directly but could be through another public institution.

All of the above are considered by me as really great assets, because I get experience in LLMs, to work in my hometown and save money, nice workplace overall, make my startup grow and, I get to travel and live abroad temporarily which is my future plan. However, I am fully aware that working in academia can also be seen by HR as not a real job and might hurt me in the future if I get tired of academia and want to move abroad in Europe or internationally. It could also happen that my startup idea or my execution fails and I don't get that additional private-sector experience.

If this was your scenario, how would you proceed for the next 3-4 years? For personal context, I am 29yo from Spain, with a BSc in CS and an MSc in AI from MTU, Cork. For experience I have 15 months of data-related experience (8 months as an AI researcher at another college) and 7 months as a data engineer in a consulting firm.

Thanks!