Academia or industry: which is easier to begin a CS research career without a bachelors degree? I'm an engineer from the US at a large tech company who had to cease their undergraduate studies due to family complications. Previously, I was an assistant in a CS research lab during college, and in industry I've been able to work on engineering problems within the same CS sub-field for the past 4 years. I was a co-author on a published paper while working with the research group, though the professor I worked under has since retired.

Increasingly frequently, I have been reading papers, emailing authors, and desiring research related work again.

If I want to work towards a research career again in this sub-field, and don't want to complete a bachelors degree, what would be the easiest or most realistic path forward - entering a research role at big company without a graduate degree, or beginning a graduate degree without a bachelors? What are possible long term drawbacks of each path?
I don't think there is a good yes/no answer to this unfortunately, and by that I mean different companies and university have vastly different rules/traditions/standards as to how they hire/admit people to programs. 

I would say the easier of the two would be entering a research role at a company with just a bachelors degree. The reason I say that is because what is more important (in my experience) at corporations is relevant work history/experience. 

I would note that in my experience companies can be very wary about hiring people without at least a bachelors degree because they can be seen as a liability. 

I have never heard of a CS department admitting someone to a research role without a bachelors degree. I would guess that this is because it is rare having someone want to research without a bachelors and on top of that it is already rare to award graduate degrees to people who don't already have a bachelors. Like I said in the beginning though, you may find a program willing to accept you.