LONDON — The British defense contractor BAE Systems said on Tuesday that it would cut nearly 2,000 jobs and reorganize its management structure in an effort to reshape its business and to cut costs as orders slow for military jets.

The job losses at one of Britain’s largest manufacturers come at a fraught time in the country’s negotiations to leave the European Union, the process commonly known as Brexit.

Concerns about the pace of those talks — and the possibility that Britain could find itself without a trade deal with the remaining 27 countries in the bloc — have cast a shadow on the future of the British economy. The loss of manufacturing jobs is a particularly sensitive topic as Britain seeks to go its own way.

Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain sought recently to intervene in a trade dispute between the United States and Canada after the Trump administration imposed a huge tariff on a new aircraft made by the Montreal-based manufacturer Bombardier. The tariff puts as many as 4,200 jobs at risk at a Bombardier plant in Northern Ireland.