Tarver attended Foothill High School in Pleasanton, California and graduated in 1993. After graduating from high school, he attended Santa Clara University from 1992 to 1997. He graduated from Santa Clara with a bachelor"s degree in biochemistry in 1997.
Since Santa Clara had cut their football team after the 1992 season, Tarver decided to play defensive back at West Valley College for the 1994–1995 seasons. After his playing career ended, Tarver served as outside linebackers, defensive backs, and special teams coach at West Valley for the 1996 and 1997 seasons, and as a graduate assistant at University of California, Los Angeles for the 1998 through 2000 seasons, while pursuing his master"s degree. Tarver was hired as an Offensive Quality Control coach for the 49ers in 2001, and served as outside linebackers coach until 2010.
In 2011, Tarver was named co-defensive coordinator on David Shaw"s staff at Stanford.
In February 2012, Tarver was hired by new Raiders head coach Dennis Allen to replace former defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan. In Tarver"s first season as Raiders defensive coordinator, the defense improved from 29th overall in 2011 to 18th in 2012.
In 2013, Tarver was fined for making an obscene gesture toward an official during a game. NFL head coaches under whom Jason Tarver has served:
Steve Mariucci, San Francisco 49ers (2001-2002)
Dennis Erickson, San Francisco 49ers (2003-2004)
Mike Nolan, San Francisco 49ers (2005-2008)
Mike Singletary, San Francisco 49ers (2009-2010)
Dennis Allen, Oakland Raiders (2012-2014)
Jim Tomsula, San Francisco 49ers (2015)
Chip Kelly, San Francisco 49ers (2016-present).
