A system is provided including a coiled tubing reel apparatus including a reel drum for storing a coiled tubing string spooled on the reel drum and a hydraulic reel drive motor that controls rotation of the reel drum. The system further includes a reel controller that determines an estimated reel back tension for a portion of the coiled tubing string between the reel apparatus and the injector based on a set of parameters related to a coiled tubing operation. The reel controller determines a target reel back tension to be applied to the portion of the coiled tubing string by adjusting the estimated reel back tension based on a historical job dataset. The reel controller then determines and sets a target hydraulic pressure of the reel drive motor to achieve the target reel back tension in the portion of the coiled tubing string.