Nissan Motor is shaking up its leadership as the Japanese automaker grapples with a growing list of setbacks, from sluggish sales to failed merger talks and looming tariff threats in the United States.

On Tuesday, Nissan announced that Makoto Uchida, its chief executive since 2019, would step down. Ivan Espinosa, a Nissan veteran and the company’s chief planning officer, will take over as chief executive on April 1, the company said.

The move follows a tumultuous year for Nissan, putting the company in a leadership transition midway through a restructuring effort and at a time of heightened uncertainty for the nearly century-old brand.

Nissan said in a statement that “a new generation of leaders” would help position the company for long-term growth. Mr. Espinosa, 46, has held a number of roles related to product planning since he joined Nissan in 2003.

Mr. Uchida, 58, took charge during another turbulent period, after the ouster of Carlos Ghosn, then Nissan’s chairman, on allegations of financial misconduct. Nissan was reeling from a sharp decline in profits, and its leadership was in disarray. Mr. Uchida stepped up after Ghosn’s immediate successor resigned over separate issues involving his pay.

Mr. Uchida, who ran Nissan’s China business before taking the helm of the company, overhauled its decades-old alliance with the French automaker Renault and embarked on a mission to boost profitability by scaling back incentives that had propped up sales during Mr. Ghosn’s tenure.