A digitally programmable gain control circuit and method of operating the same is disclosed. The gain control circuit includes a programmable gain amplifier having an amplifier structure represented by a plurality of overlapping discrete monotonic transfer function segments, wherein at least one point of non-monotonicity occurs among one or more of the plurality of overlapping discrete monotonic transfer function segments, and a gain segment translator circuit operative to translate a monotonic gain value to a segment code to match the non-monotonic characteristics of the programmable gain amplifier. The programmability of the gain amplifier is provided by a coarse gain control circuit and a fine gain control circuit.